The Restless Soul
by grpruett
Summary: The 24 hour time-loop and the 2 reality-shifts had left the soul of Warehouse 13 with too much unwanted energy that can only be expelled through a successive move, so after a failed move attempt by Benedict Valda, the soul of the warehouse reaches out to find substitutions for the Mason Square and Mason Setting Maul.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N 1:** Warehouse 13 was created by Jane Espenson and D. Brent Mote and was aired on the SYFY network. They reserve all rights to Warehouse 13. I do not own or have any rights to the show and my story is for entertainment only.

 **A/N 2:** I believe that the final 2 episodes in the show were supposed to be 24 hours apart, but in my story the final 2 episodes were at least 5 days apart.

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 _(From the show)_

At Warehouse 13, during the second week of May, Artie and Myka stored away the Mason Compass.

"I just can't believe that the warehouse almost moved," Myka commented before she and Artie began walking away from the compass. "We've been here for five years, you know? It feels like home."

"Try forty years. A little piece of advice, take it one snag at a time," Artie replied before he went to close the overhead door to the room. "Something I've learned on this job is you never know when things are going to…" The Mason Compass reactivated, and Artie stopped the door from closing before he continued to say, "Change."

"Artie, I thought we stopped it," Myka said.

"We did," Artie replied before calling Mrs. Frederic on his Farnsworth.

"There's a problem, isn't there?" Mrs. Frederic asked as if only for verification.

"Yes," Artie replied before pointing his Farnsworth so Mrs. Frederic could see the Mason Compass. As Artie looked into the Farnsworth again, he continued to say, "We retrieved the setting maul. We stopped the warehouse from moving. Why is that compass still active?"

"I had a feeling," Mrs. Frederic replied as she acted as if she was trying to make sense of her thoughts or feelings. Myka moved to see into the Farnsworth as well. "Yes, I'm afraid Benedict Valda's actions may have set certain events into motion."

"Events? What kind of events?" Myka quickly questioned.

"The kind that even I may be unable to stop," Mrs. Frederic replied.

 _(Beginning of my story)_

During the following mornings around 3:00 A.M. each morning of Central Daylight Savings Time, in Webster Groves, Missouri, (one of the cities that made up Saint Louis County), Valerie Mendes—a forty-five year-old mulatto woman who greatly favored Leena in many ways—would get out of her king-size bed while in a supernatural trance and go down into the basement of her two-story house. Once in the basement, she sat at her deceased father's architect drafting table and drew out blueprints for Warehouse 14.

Valerie stood 5' 6" while barefooted. She had chocolate brown eyes and long black hair. Her father was English and French, and her mother was African American. Her dominant language was English, but she learned Spanish and Portuguese after meeting her husband, Shayne.

Shayne was a police detective for Saint Louis County and had currently been working nights, so he remained unaware of Valerie's supernatural trance.

Shayne was forty-six years old. He stood 5' 7.5" while barefooted, and he too had black hair and brown eyes. Shayne's dominant language was English, but because of his parents, he was fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, along with knowing a little Navajo.

Shayne's mother (Marina) was Brazilian and had moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico, along with her parents and siblings, when she was fourteen. Shayne's father (Miguel) was Mexican and Native American from the Navajo tribe and had grown up in Carlsbad, New Mexico. However, Miguel, Marina and David (Shayne's younger brother) had moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when Shayne was eighteen—weeks before Shayne could start college at Saint Louis University.

Danielle (Dani), Valerie and Shayne's oldest daughter out of three daughters and no sons, lived with her fiancé Michael, so she was unaware of her mom's supernatural trance as well.

Dani was twenty-three years old and stood 5' 4." while barefooted, and like her mom, she had chocolate brown eyes and long black hair. Her dominant language was English, but was fluent in Spanish and Portuguese as well.

Kelly, Valerie and Shayne's second oldest daughter, lived with Valerie and Shayne, and was sleeping during the times her mom would be in her supernatural trance, so she too was unaware of her mom's supernatural trance.

Kelly was twenty years old and stood 5' 5.5" while barefooted, and also like her mom, she had chocolate brown eyes and long black hair. Her dominant language was English, but was fluent in Spanish and Portuguese as well.

Veronica (Ronnie), Valerie and Shayne's youngest daughter, also lived with Valerie and Shayne, and was sleeping as well during the times her mom would be in her supernatural trance.

Ronnie had turned seventeen years old on May 7th and was also 5' 4" while barefooted. Ronnie's fingernails were kept somewhat lengthy and were currently unpolished, and like her mom and two sisters, she had chocolate brown eyes and long black hair. Her dominant language was English, but was fluent in Spanish and Portuguese as well.

Unlike her parents and sisters, but like her maternal grandmother, Ronnie had the ability to see auras in people and objects, as well as the ability to get the occasional psychic visions and/or feelings.

During the passing few days Ronnie had begun to notice that Valerie's normal purplish blue aura was slowly shifting to be more purple than blue and had asked Valerie if anything was troubling her, but Valerie had sincerely acted puzzled by Ronnie's inquiry.

Ronnie just gave Valerie a curious look before dropping the issue.

The following Saturday morning, on Big Bend road in Webster Groves, Missouri, Ronnie stopped her red Honda Insight at a stop light.

Taped to the pole of the stop light was a colorful handwritten advertisement poster for a yard sale that was currently in progress.

After Ronnie saw the troubling aura on the advertisement for the yard sale, she inserted the address for it into her GPS, but before she was done, the light turned green.

The man who was stopped behind Ronnie honked his horn for Ronnie to go as the GPS displayed the route that Ronnie needed to go to find the yard sale.

Ronnie politely waved to the man behind her before continuing through the intersection, and as her GPS instructed, she turned right at the first side road that she came to.

Ronnie followed the path that the GPS instructed her to take for several blocks before parking her car in front of the house that was hosting the yard sale.

While sitting in her car, Ronnie looked towards the large and small objects that were being sold and noting that there were quite amount of stuff, and as of yet, not too many buyers.

There were four women and three men in the yard. The youngest woman was in her early twenties and the oldest woman—the woman who was hosting the yard sale—was Caucasian and in her mid to late forties. The youngest man—also a Caucasian—was nineteen and the oldest man—a Caucasian as well—was in his mid to late forties.

When Ronnie saw the nineteen-year-old, she mouthed out the name, "Scott… I think."

After getting an overview of what was being sold in the yard, Ronnie glanced at her car clock, which read, "8:45 A.M." and shut off her engine. She then grabbed her long-strap denim purse before opening the door and climbing out.

Ronnie was currently wearing black slacks, a teal button-up blouse and three-inch high-heeled black ankle boots. The jewelry she wore was one ring on her right ring finger, a pair of emerald birthstone earrings and an old amulet type necklace that also had an emerald stone. Ronnie had bought the amulet necklace seven years ago from Rebecca St. Clair during one of Rebecca's yard sale, and Rebecca had bought it new when she was sixteen.

As Ronnie was making her way to the tables that were displaying the small items for sale, Scott—who had a secret crush on Ronnie for the past two years—saw her the moment when she stepped out of her car.

Scott was 5' 10" and somewhat muscular, and as Ronnie moved towards the tables, he stepped up, and said, "Ronnie. Hi."

"Scott, right?" Ronnie questioned as she came to a stop.

"Yes; right," he replied. "So how have you been? It's been a while since I've seen you."

"I've been good, Scott," Ronnie replied with a slight grin. "How have you been?"

"I'm good too," Scott replied. "So are you and Everett still together?"

"Everett and I had only gone out on two dates," Ronnie replied. "So we were really never together."

"I wish I had known that a year ago." As Ronnie was giving Scott a curious look, Scott continued to asked, "Are you seeing anyone now?"

"Kind of," Ronnie replied.

"Kind of?" Scott echoed.

"Eric Stewart and I had gone on two dates and we are planning to go on another one," Ronnie replied. "So far, he's not frightened away by my freakiness and quirks."

"I can't believe anyone can accuse you of being a freak," Scott began sincerely. "And what quirks could you have that would frighten people away?"

"My major quirk is that I go to yard sales, thrift shops and antiques stores, and what makes me a freak is that all those curios I find, speak to me."

"What do you mean they speak to you?" Scott replied in an uncertain tone.

"I mean what I said," Ronnie replied. "Inanimate objects speak to me. Not in words of course. They speak to me with their aura."

"Aura?" Scott questioned curiously.

"Auras are the colors or waves of colors that people and objects emit, and I can see them," Ronnie shared.

"Okay," Scott replied skeptically.

Ronnie amusingly grinned before saying, "I told you I was a freak."

"No-no," Scott replied unconvincingly. "I wasn't thinking that you were a freak."

"Yes you were, and I'm fine with it," Ronnie replied. "In fact, I am a freak and I'm okay with it. I prefer my freakiness of seeing auras, because my ability to see auras is how I know which curios to buy."

"So you don't just buy any curio, you buy curios with a certain aura to them," Scott summed up.

"Exactly," Ronnie replied. "I'm here looking for curios that emit a certain aura. Anyway, what about you? You don't look the type to go to yard sales."

"I'm not," Scott admitted. "I live here and my parents are the ones who are putting on the yard sale."

"Ah," Ronnie replied with a nod.

"So tell me," Scott began with a hand gesture of his left hand. Ronnie caught sight of the watch that he wore. "What are the objects saying to you?"

Ronnie dragged her gaze from the watch and looked towards the items near her that were being sold.

"Are you sure you want me to tell you what I'm being told?" Ronnie questioned in a tone as if Scott's request wasn't well thought out.

"I'm sure," Scott replied.

"Okay," Ronnie began skeptically. "First you should know that unowned objects—object that are rarely held by anyone—emit a light gray aura, and one-owner objects emit auras that are the same color of their owners' auras. For example, your aura is olive green, but the watch you're wearing has a blue aura. Also most of the items here have a similar shade of blue aura as the watch, which indicates to me that they had belonged to the same person for more than two months, and the person who owned them had purchased them new. Since your watch is for a man, I'm going to assumed that the person was a man who owned the items. Also shades of blue mean several things, like loyalty, gallantry, bravery, trustworthy, logical mind and self-confidence to name a few. So the man who had owned all of these objects had some of these traits before he died…"

"What makes you think that he died?" Scott quickly asked.

"People don't sell off living people's stuff at a yard sale, and since you're wearing his watch, the man who died meant a lot to you," Ronnie replied.

Scott nodded to acknowledge what was said before saying, "He was my grandpa. He died two weeks ago. Anyway, you said that I have an olive green aura. What does that mean?"

Ronnie slightly grinned before saying, "Shades of green mean several things too, but I associate your shade of green to mean strong family ties and a strong peace with nature. You currently have a nice aura and I hope you keep it for many years."

"Wait, my aura can change?" Scott quickly asked.

"It can and eventually it will," Ronnie said.

"What causes an aura to change?" Scott asked.

"Emotions can cause it," Ronnie replied. "Like now. Your aura is now crackling with flecks of yellow, which means, you're worried about something. What are you worried about, Scott?"

"You told me that I had a nice aura and then you told me that I can lose it," Scott replied. "Yes, I realize it's stupid, but it bothered me when you said I could lose my nice aura."

"Yes, your aura will change throughout the years, but just because it will change, it doesn't mean that it will change for the worse. In fact, going by your grandpa's belongings, your grandpa had a nice aura too."

"Okay," Scott replied in an accepting tone.

Ronnie gestured towards the items while saying, "Anyway, I would like to see what your parents are selling."

"Of course; sorry," Scott replied before following Ronnie to a table. When Ronnie went to look through a large stack of movie DVDs, Scott asked, "Since I owned the watch now, will the watch aura changed to my aura."

"If you continue to wear the watch for at least two months, the watch's aura will shift to a two-color aura. In fact, objects that are shared by more than one person—like TV remotes—will have multi-color auras as well, and many shared objects…"

"Like TV remotes," Scott supplied.

Ronnie slightly grinned before continuing to say, "Yes, like TV remotes, will have a rainbow looking auras."

"That's interesting," Scott replied as Ronnie continued to look through the DVDs. "Does people have multiple color auras?"

"A person who is completely void of any moods or emotions will have a single color aura," Ronnie began. "I personally call that a resting aura. And I don't believe that a person's resting aura will have more than one color. However, except for people who are sleeping in a dreamless sleep, everybody is filled with light to severe emotions; such as happiness, sadness and anger just to mention a few. Severe emotions like complete terror will cause the resting aura to shift completely to a different color. Of course it will change back once the severity of the emotions lessens. And for light emotions, a person's aura will only crackle with another color. I refer to those crackles or flecks of color as 'emotional crackles.'"

"So you know a person's mood just by looking at him or her," Scott replied.

"Well, I would have to get to know the person first before I can tell a person's mood by his or her aura," Ronnie replied as she put down the DVDs. "I've seen you worried before. That was how I knew that you were worried when I saw crackling flecks of yellow in your aura. I also have seen you upset, and when that happens, your aura crackles with flecks of red."

"Have you seen other color flecks in my aura?" Scott asked.

Ronnie thought for a moment before saying, "When you're happy, your aura crackles with darker flecks of green. And that's all I know about your aura. I haven't been around you enough to see you in other moods."

"Yeah, I guess not," Scott replied.

"So, Scott, did your grandpa own any antiques?" Ronnie asked.

Scott thought for a moment before gesturing and saying, "There's a wind-up clock over there that's at least fifty years old. It still works."

"I'll check it out," Ronnie replied before she and Scott walked towards the clock.

Scott's parents (Joe and Mary) were near the table where the clock was setting and as Ronnie and Scott stepped up, Joe and Mary greeted Ronnie with, "Good Morning."

"Good Morning," Ronnie replied as she looked towards the clock. "I saw your advertising sign and I thought I come and check out what you had."

"We have plenty here to sell," Mary said as Ronnie looked towards the other items on the table.

"Ronnie asked if there were any antiques for sale," Scott began. "The clock is the only antique here, isn't it?"

"Yeah, there are no other antiques," Mary replied.

"Your dad's artist tool set is pretty old," Joe added. "That's for sale."

"Well, the case is old, but the pencils and chalks inside aren't," Mary replied.

"My grandpa used to teach art before he retired and drew comic books for a hobby," Scott shared.

"My mom's dad was an artist too before he died, but he drew houses. He was an architect," Ronnie shared.

"What about you, Ronnie?" Scott asked. "Are you an artist?"

Ronnie smiled before sharing, "I can draw, and I draw quite frequently too."

"If you draw frequently, then you might like the artist tool set," Mary replied before gesturing. "It's right over there."

Ronnie looked towards the artist tool set and saw a very active black, blue and red aura emitting from the case. With her right hand, she subconsciously felt her amulet necklace beneath her shirt as she walked over to the artist tool set. Once she reached it, she spotted twenty fan-fiction comic book manuscripts of Batman, Superman and Spiderman that were also emitting an active black, blue and red auras, but not as active as the case.

The artist tool set had a price tag on it for forty dollars and the comic book manuscripts were priced a dollar for each manuscript.

Without hesitation, Ronnie reached for the case, but received a mild static electrical shock when she was an inch from it.

After flinching slightly and mouthing out the word "Ow", Ronnie noticed that the case's very active black, blue and red aura appeared slightly less active.

While ignoring the slight change of the case's aura, Ronnie opened the case and looked at the pencils, the chalk, the short ruler and the artist compass and saw that they too were emitting active black, blue and red auras.

Ronnie closed the case, turned towards Mary and said, "I'll buy the artist tool set and all of the comic books." Ronnie reached into her purse. "So I owe you sixty dollars."

"You're going to pay the sixty dollars without attempting to haggle?" Scott questioned as Ronnie pulled out her wallet.

"I actually know how much this particular artist tool set costs brand new, so sixty dollars for everything isn't really a bad price," Ronnie replied as she pulled out three twenties from her wallet. She then held out the money for Mary to take.

As Mary took the money, she asked, "Would you like to look around? You might find other things that you like."

"I'm sure I would, but I actually need to get to work," Ronnie replied as she scanned the other items for sale.

"You work," Scott said in a slightly impressed tone. "Where do you work?"

"I'm actually interning for my mom's uncle," Ronnie shared. "When my grandpa was alive, he and his brother were partners in an architecture firm, and now my great-uncle is the sole owner of the firm."

"How long ago did your grandpa died?" Scott asked. "If it's a personal question, you don't have to answer."

Ronnie slightly grinned before answering, "It's not a personal question and he died ten months ago from a stupid accident."

"A car accident?" Scott questioned.

Ronnie shook her head before saying, "No. He worked himself around the clock to meet a deadline, and exhaustion caught up with him. He was working alone at his office and at some point he fell, bang his head on the edge of his architect drafting table and bled out. His brother found him the morning after. Anyway, I need to get going."

"I'll see you later, Ronnie," Scott replied as she gathered her purchases.

"You just might," Ronnie replied. "You never know. Bye."

"Bye," Scott, Mary and Joe replied.

Ronnie took her purchases to her car and placed it in the back.

Several minutes later, Ronnie stepped through the door of Wolfe's Architecture firm at 9:10 A.M.

As Ronnie approached the reception counter, Tiffany—the receptionist—told her, "Good morning, Veronica."

"Good morning," Ronnie echoed.

"Your great-uncle wants to see you ASAP. He's in his office," Tiffany said.

"No doubt to chew me out for being late again," Ronnie replied before walking towards her great-uncle's office.

After reaching her Great-Uncle Charles's opened door, Ronnie knocked before entering.

"Come in, Veronica, and sit down," Charles—a sixty-five year-old Caucasian man—said while gesturing towards his three guest chairs.

"Inviting me to sit," Ronnie replied as she moved towards the first guest chair. "I must be in serious trouble."

"Veronica, you agreed to intern here," Charles informed as Ronnie sat in the seat. "And so far, you have been late three out of the six days that you worked."

"Those first two days when I was late, I miss judge the morning traffic, and I was only late by two minutes," Ronnie replied.

"What happen today?" Charles questioned. "You are more than ten minutes late today."

"Something came up that needed my immediate attention," Ronnie replied.

"What came up?" Charles asked.

Ronnie pursed her lips for a moment before asking, "Had mom or grandpa ever tell you that I'm able to see auras?"

"No, but it doesn't surprise me that you can," Charles replied. "What does that have to do with you being late though?"

"Wait!" Ronnie requested. "Why doesn't that surprise you that I can see auras?"

"Your Grandma Katrina can see auras as well," Charles replied.

"Mom never told me that her mom could see auras," Ronnie informed.

"Well, that's why your grandma did what she did," Charles said.

"So you're telling me that Grandma Katrina had abandoned her husband and kids because she could see auras?" Ronnie questioned incredulously.

"Abandoned?" Charles didn't consider his words as he continued to say, "Yes, I can see your mom telling you that her mom had abandon the family. That is how she felt."

"If grandma didn't abandon your brother and her kids, then where is she?" Ronnie asked.

"You should ask your mom," Charles said.

"Obviously she has no intention on telling me or she would have done so already," Ronnie replied. "So where's your sister-in-law, Uncle Charles? Where's my grandma?"

Charles pursed his lips before sighing and saying, "Veronica, your grandma is in federal prison for killing a neighborhood mailman."

"Grandma killed a mailman?" Ronnie uttered in a shock tone. "Why would she kill a mailman?"

"According to your grandma, the mailman had a disturbing looking aura about him, and then one day when the mailman handed her a certified letter, your grandma had gotten a vision of the mailman abducting and killing a bunch of kids," Charles began. "So being compelled to stop the mailman from killing her kids or anyone else's kids, your grandma killed the mailman before he could take his first victim. Once the mailman was dead, your grandma called the police and confessed to what she had done."

"Wow!" Ronnie exclaimed. "Mom lied to me."

"Now before you get mad at your mom for lying to you, you need to know that your mom was eight or nine when your grandma was sentence to life in prison," Charles quickly continued. "So your mom had felt abandoned by your grandma for a very long time, and I have no doubt that she thought that telling you that your grandma had abandoned the family was her way of protecting you."

"Okay, fine," Ronnie replied. "Mom gets a free pass for this lie."

"Now getting back to you, young lady," Charles began. "Why were you over ten minutes late today?"

Ronnie slightly grinned before saying, "While coming to work, I saw a sign for a yard sale, and the sign's aura troubled me. So I checked out the yard sale and found what was troubling me. I bought it and now once I get home, I'm going to put it in the basement and forget about it."

"You bought something from a yard sale so you can store it away and forget about it?" Charles questioned.

"There's something disturbing about it and no one should have it," Ronnie defended. "I did the same thing to Grandpa's architect drafting table. It has a disturbing aura as well, and I stuck it in the basement and that's where it's going to stay."

"Okay," Charles began in an uncertain tone. "I guess I should be glad that you're going after objects that have disturbing auras and not people."

"I respect the law, Uncle Charles, so I won't be taking the law in my own hands as grandma did," Ronnie replied.

"Good," Charles replied. "Now before I send you off to work, I want to talk to you about Russell Starr. He says that you won't assist him."

"To assist him I will have to enter his office," Ronnie replied.

"What is wrong with that?" Charles asked.

"He has the office where grandpa died in and the floor where grandpa died at has a troubling aura as well," Ronnie replied. "So I'm not stepping foot inside that office."

"Okay, okay," Charles began. "I'll tell Russell that his office gives you the heebie-jeebies because of what happened to your grandpa. He should understand. Now go to work."

"Fine," Ronnie replied before getting up and leaving.

After Ronnie left, Charles picked up the receiver to his phone and dialed it.

"Holiday Inn, how can I help you?" a man answered.

"I would like to speak with Valerie Mendes," Charles replied.

"Valerie is in a staff meeting," the man replied. "Would you like to leave a message?"

"I'm Charles Wolfe; I'm her uncle and just let her know that I called and for her to call me back," he said.

"I will give her the message, Mr. Wolfe," the man said.

"Okay; bye," Charles replied.

"Bye," the man said before hanging up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Hours later, Ronnie got home to her house on Hawthorne Avenue at 5:20 P.M., and although Valerie's car and Kelly's car were at the house, no one was currently home.

Ronnie got her yard sale purchases out of the back of her car and carried them into the house.

She hollered for her parents and for Kelly after stepping in, but when no one answered, she carried her yard sale purchases to the basement.

After reaching the basement, Ronnie began to smell fudge. As she went to find the source of the smell, she spotted her mother's incomplete blueprints for warehouse 14 on top of the architect drafting table.

Ronnie abandoned her search for the smell of fudge after seeing the blueprints, and once she put her yard sale purchases on a shelf over the architect drafting table, she reached for the blueprints. However, once her hand was less than an inch from the table, she received a strong static electrical shock.

Ronnie yanked her hand back quickly before grumbling, "You blasted table. How are you always shocking the hell out of me?"

Once Ronnie recovered from being shocked, she held her breath and quickly snatched the blueprints while only flinching slightly when she received a lesser jolt.

"Hah! That one didn't hurt like the first one did," Ronnie told the table before she went to examine the four blueprint pages.

Ronnie knew enough about blueprints to know that there should be more pages to what she had, and while Ronnie was closely examining the last finished page, she heard people—her parents and Kelly—entering the house. She then moved towards the stairs with the blueprints.

Valerie, Shayne and Kelly were in the kitchen with bags of groceries and Chinese food, and when Ronnie entered the kitchen with the blueprints, she said, "Mom, I see you took a renewed interest at becoming an architect. I'm truly happy for you, Mom, but I think you're making a mistake by using Grandpa's drafting table."

"What are you talking about, sweetie?" Valerie asked as she was putting cereal boxes away in the cabinets. "I don't have a renewed interest in becoming an architect."

"Then I guess you drew out these blueprints as a hobby," Ronnie commented as she held up the blueprints.

"Sweetie, it's been years since I even attempted to draw out blueprints," Valerie replied. "So whatever blueprints you have, they must belong to your grandpa."

Ronnie again held up the blueprints while saying, "Mom, these are new; I say no more than four days old and they're written in your handwriting."

"Okay, well, if the handwriting favors my handwriting, then it's a coincidence, because I gave up on architecture a long time ago," Valerie insisted.

"Mom, you're the only one here who knows anything about drawing blueprints," Ronnie pointed out. "No one else in this house can do this."

"Sweetie, if I drew out blueprints, why would I lie about it?" Valerie quickly asked.

"I don't know, Mom," Ronnie replied. "I guess for the same reason you had lied to me before."

"When have I ever lied to you, young lady?" Valerie quickly challenged in an annoyed tone.

"I know about grandma," Ronnie informed. "I know where she's at and why she's there."

"Who told…? Uncle Charles told you," Valerie said as the facts dawned on her. "He shouldn't have told you."

"You're right, Mom. He shouldn't have told me, because you should have been the one to tell me." Ronnie turned towards Kelly while saying, "Grandma Katrina is serving out a life sentence in prison for murdering a mailman." When no surprise expression came across Kelly's face, Ronnie continued to say, "And you knew."

"I knew," Kelly simply replied.

"Does Dani know too?" Ronnie asked.

"Dani knows, and the reason why you were never told is because of your ability to see auras." When a confused expression came across Ronnie's face, Valerie continued to say, "I didn't want to risk that you would follow in your grandma's footsteps."

"You didn't want me to follow in my grandma's footsteps," Ronnie echoed curiously. "Mom, if I would get a future vision of a mailman killing kids, I might kill the mailman as well, even if I hadn't learned what grandma had done, and FYI, Mom, I was told that you were a kid when grandma went to prison. So if grandma didn't have killed the mailman, the mailman might have killed you."

"The mailman was innocent, Ronnie. The man had killed no one." Valerie informed.

"He might have been innocent at the time, but Uncle Charles said that Grandma had gotten a vision that showed that he was going to kill," Ronnie replied.

"Your grandma had to have been delusional, because psychics aren't real," Valerie replied without considering her words. "No one can get visions of the future."

"Delusional; wow!" Ronnie replied while acting as if she was slapped in the face. "I had told you three of my visions, and now I find out that all this time you see me as being delusional."

"Sweetie, I never said that you were delusional," Valerie replied.

"At least not to my face," Ronnie replied.

"I don't see you has being delusional," Valerie said. "Just imaginative."

"Yes, well, Mom, I have had a lot more imaginative thoughts than what I had told you about and nearly all of them have come true," Ronnie said while tossing the blueprints on the kitchen counter (the closest empty surface to her). "Anyway, there are your blueprints. I'm out of here."

"Where are you going?" Valerie quickly asked.

As Ronnie was walking towards the exit to the kitchen, she replied, "Anywhere that's not here, and don't worry, Mom; I promise that I won't kill any mailmen with troubling auras today."

"That's not funny," Valerie shot back. Ronnie didn't reply and when Valerie looked towards Shayne, Shayne was staring at her and pursing his lips. "And I don't want to hear 'I told you so' from you."

Shayne amusingly grinned slightly before picking up the blueprints and saying, "I wasn't going to, but I was thinking it."

"Hmm," Valerie replied.

"Ronnie is definitely right about one thing," Shayne replied before the sounds of the front door opening and slamming shut were heard. Shayne glanced in the direction of the door before he continued to say, "These blueprints are in your handwriting."

"Okay, well, I didn't draw those," Valerie insisted.

"You may claim that you didn't draw these, but the evidence says otherwise," Shayne replied.

"Here is what you can do with your evidence, Detective Mendes," Valerie began before snatching the blueprints from his hand and ripping the blueprints to shreds.

The house began to shake as if a mild earthquake struck. Everything in the house rattled against each other.

Valerie, Shayne and Kelly grabbed onto fixed surfaces to ride out the mild quake.

In the basement, the artist tool set and the fan-fiction comic book manuscripts fell from the shelf and onto the edge of the architect drafting table.

As the quake continued, all of the manuscripts fell onto the floor, except for a completed fan-fiction blueprints of Dr. Monroe's soundproof laboratory (furnished in the blueprint pages) and his huge secret storage facility (empty in the blueprint pages) below the laboratory.

Dr. Monroe was a fan-fiction character in one of the Batman manuscripts.

Within seconds of the pages falling onto the floor, the architect drafting table and the pages to the blueprints glowed.

After another few seconds had passed, the basement began to transmogrify itself to Dr. Monroe's soundproof laboratory, while the ground below the plumbing and sewer system of the house began to transmogrify itself to Dr. Monroe's huge secret storage facility.

Outside, Ronnie drove away from the house without feeling the mild quake.

 _(From the show)_

At Warehouse 13, Mrs. Frederic and Pete were sitting at the time-capsule table while Steve, Myka, Artie and Claudia stood around the table. They were attempting to view Pete's defining moment, but the table had displayed several of Pete's memories instead.

Once the table couldn't pick out Pete's defining moment, Myka asked, "Mrs. F, why was Pete's memory of all that and not just one case?"

"Tell them, Agent Lattimer," Mrs. Frederic told him. "You know."

"Maybe my defining moment is all of it," Pete began. "Every minute that I got to spend with you guys. I'm sorry, Mrs. F. I just was scared. I was scared that if I lost this, I'd go back to being the person I was before. But this is who I am now. The warehouse and all of you have made me a better man. If it ends tomorrow or if it goes on forever, nothing—nothing will ever change that."

"Or maybe you broke the table," Steve suggested, which made Mrs. Frederic to break out in laughter.

"I've never heard you laugh before," Artie told Mrs. Frederic.

Mrs. Frederic got her laughter under control before holding up her index finger and saying, "I am a woman of infinite surprises."

"Can we, uh… can we watch some more?" Claudia requested.

"Yes, please," Pete replied.

"Uh, hang on, hang on," Artie requested as he pulled out the device that monitored artifact activity around the globe. "Yeah, I have a ping. There's a ping."

"Right," Myka replied.

"Back to work," Artie uttered.

"Let's go," Claudia said before she followed behind Steve, Myka and Artie as they walked away.

Pete stood up and walked around the time-capsule table, but without following behind Claudia, he asked Mrs. Frederic, "So, is it really over?"

Mrs. Fredric stood up and faced Pete before saying, "I believe I've mentioned this more than once. This particular wonder is endless."

"Really? Just this once, I can't get a straight answer out of you?" Pete questioned.

"See you tomorrow, Peter," Mrs. Frederic replied.

Pete kissed Mrs. Fredric on the cheek before saying, "See you tomorrow, Irene."

As Pete went to catch up to the others, Mrs. Frederic walked away in her direction.

In the control room (Artie's office), after Artie had checked the computer to pinpoint the disruption he informed, "Someone in Poughkeepsie is breathing fire."

"It had to be fire, didn't it?" Steve rhetorically questioned as Pete entered the room.

"This sounds familiar," Claudia replied as Pete was stepping up behind Myka.

"Can you rewind that?" Myka requested while trying to make sense at what she was seeing. "It looks like there's something wrong with his skin."

"Wait a minute, has he got scales?" Pete questioned while affectionately putting his hands on Myka's waist. While sounding intrigue, Pete continued to say, "We have scales."

"Not at work, okay?" Myka told Pete, while referring to his affectionate touch. "Never at work."

Pete turned loose of Myka and took a half step back.

"Okay, this is just gonna be gross," Claudia said while looking at Pete and Myka.

"She is not lying," Steve added while amusing Myka and Pete.

"Hey, we can go," Steve told Claudia. "I've got an aunt in Wappingers falls.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no," Claudia replied. "I've gotta stay here and research Artie's stuff.

"Claudia, I'm telling you… no, I am ordering you…" Artie was only able to get out.

"Oh, come on, Artie; they're practically related," Myka interrupted.

"Does that mean we're not going?" Pete asked Myka.

 _(End to what was in the show)_

"Wait, wait," Artie uttered as the computer showed a second disturbance. "We have another ping. There's a mild seismic activity happening as I speak nowhere near a fault line, and it originated near the intersection of Hawthorne Avenue and Joy Avenue in Webster Groves, Missouri."

"Where exactly is Webster Groves, Missouri?" Pete asked.

"Webster Groves is one of several cities that make up Saint Louis County," Artie said.

"It's been a few years since we've been to Saint Louis," Myka commented.

"Here's your chance to remedy that," Artie began. "Myka; Pete, you two go to Webster Groves. Steve; Claudia, you two go to Poughkeepsie."

"But, Artie…" Claudia was only able to get out.

"No buts," Artie replied. "Everyone has his and her assignment. So off you go. Bag, snag and bring back the artifact."

"Fine," Claudia grumbled.

"Let's go," Myka said as she went to pull Pete along by his arm.

Everyone, but Artie left the room.

In Webster Groves, Missouri, Valerie and Shayne's house shook for a few minutes before ending.

"Did we just experience a tremor?" Kelly asked.

"I believe so," Shayne replied. "They might talk about it on the news later."

"Okay, well, I'm going to walk through the house and see what all got knocked over," Valerie replied.

"As weak as that tremor was, I doubt anything more than rattling things had occurred," Shayne replied.

"I'm going to find out," Valerie replied.

"I'll check the upstairs," Kelly volunteered before she and Valerie could leave the kitchen.

Shayne stepped over to the gas oven and checked to see if the burners would light and they each did. After turning off the burners, he went back to putting the groceries away.

Valerie checked the first floor and Kelly checked the second floor. No one thought to check the basement and once they were done, Valerie, Shayne and Kelly sat down at the kitchen table to eat.

At Warehouse 13, items that were once stored in Warehouse 1 began to slowly disappear and then reappeared in Valerie and Shayne's newly created subbasement.

"And so it begins once again," Artie said after noticing items disappearing.

Random items around the globe that closely resembled the items from Dr. Monroe's laboratory had begun to disappear as well, only to reappear in Valerie and Shayne's basement—including the secret bookcase door that led to Valerie and Shayne's subbasement. On the bookcase's third shelf from the top and the shelves below the third shelf were medical journals and novels. On the second shelve from the top were, respectively from left to right, a dragon statue, a griffin statue and a phoenix statue. The very top shelf was left empty.

The linoleum floor from Dr. Monroe's laboratory appeared and covered the concrete floor. The items that were in the basement prior to the transformation and the original basement stairs went untouched; however, to make room for the arriving items, certain items were pushed aside from their original locations.

Ronnie drove to a house that was a few blocks away on Elmwood Avenue and parked in front of the house. After grabbing her purse from the passenger seat, she climbed out of her car and moved towards the front door.

After reaching the door and ringing the doorbell, Ronnie waited several seconds before Chloe—Ronnie's seventeen-year-old best friend who stood 5' 9"—opened the door.

"I see you just got off work," Chloe replied as she backed up. "Come in."

"I got off at 5:00 P.M.," Ronnie replied while stepping in.

"I see you came straight here from work," Chloe assumed.

"No, I went home first," Ronnie corrected.

"I'm surprised that you didn't change clothes," Chloe said as she walked away.

"I would have, but my mom pissed me off and I left," Ronnie said while following Chloe.

"Wow," Chloe began in a surprised tone. "I have never known of you getting mad at your mom."

"I do occasionally, and today is one of those occasions," Ronnie said while following Chloe into the living room.

Chloe's parents and younger brother were in the living room while watching TV and after Ronnie stepped in, everyone greeted one another.

"So you're pissed off at your mom?" Penny—Chloe's mom—continued after the greetings were over. Ronnie gave Penny a curious look. "Sound in this house carries throughout the house and you weren't whispering, sweetie."

Ronnie amusingly grinned before saying, "Yes; I'm pissed off at my mom."

"I'm a great listener if you would like to talk about it," Penny replied.

"Mom, Ronnie may not want to confide in a psychiatrist," Paul Jr. (Chloe's fourteen-year-old brother) informed.

"I'm a therapist; not a psychiatrist," Penny corrected.

"The only difference than the two is how much you charge," Paul Jr. said before smirking.

"There are other differences too, but regardless, it's up to Ronnie to tell me that she doesn't want to talk about it; not you," Penny told her son.

"There's really nothing to talk about, Mrs. Downing," Ronnie claimed.

"We can talk about why you are upset with your mom," Penny countered.

"I found out today that my mom had been lying to me for years about something," Ronnie replied. "That's enough to get anyone upset."

"What did she lie to you about?" Penny questioned.

Ronnie considered how much to tell Penny before saying, "Before my eleventh birthday, I would ask my grandpa—my mom's dad—about my grandma. All he would tell me was to go ask my mom, and when I did, my mom would only tell me that my grandma had abandoned her family. Today—and not from my mom—I learned where my grandma is at and why she's there; and although my mom feels as if my grandma had abandoned her family, she really didn't. So I'm mad at my mom because my mom should have been the one to tell me where my grandma is at."

"Did you ask your mom why she didn't tell you?" Penny asked.

"She filled me in on why I was left in the dark after I learned that everyone in my family knew, but me," Ronnie replied.

"Why were you left in the dark?" Penny asked.

"My grandma and I are very much alike and my mom thought that if I knew about my grandma, that I would follow in my grandma's footsteps," Ronnie replied.

"Ronnie, where is your grandma?" Chloe was the one to ask.

Ronnie pursed her lips and considered not answering before saying, "When my mom was eight or nine, my grandma was completely convinced that the neighborhood mailman was going to abduct and kill a bunch of kids, so my grandma killed the mailman before the mailman could do so. My grandma is serving out a life sentence in a federal prison for murder."

"And your mom didn't want you to know this because she felt that you would follow in your grandma's footsteps," Penny summed up.

"That's pretty much the gist of it," Ronnie replied.

"But your mom wasn't worried about Kelly or Dani following in your grandma's footsteps?" Penny questioned.

"Apparently not," Ronnie replied.

"But why was she concerned about you following in your grandma's footsteps and not them?" Penny asked.

"As I said, my grandma and I are very much alike; more so than Kelly or Dani," Ronnie said.

"I'm getting a strong sense that you are not telling me something," Penny informed.

As Ronnie shrugged as if she didn't know what else to say, Paul Sr. said, "Penny annoyingly has a six-sense about things."

Penny shot Paul Sr. a look as if to ask, "really?"

"As a therapist, Mrs. Downing, you most likely don't believe that people can have a six-sense," Ronnie commented. "My mom certainly doesn't."

Penny stared at Ronnie while considering everything that was said before restating, "Your grandma was completely convinced that the neighborhood mailman was going to abduct and kill a bunch of kids." Ronnie shot Penny a curious look as Penny continued to say, "She was convinced of that because she had a psychic vision of it."

"Either you do have a six-sense, Mrs. Downing, or I left too many hints," Ronnie said.

Penny amusingly grinned before saying, "Yes, I was able to guess that from what was said, and I also now believe that you are not mad at your mom because she lied to you. You're mad at her because she doesn't believe that you too are a psychic."

Ronnie took a breath before saying, "When I confronted my mom about the lie she had told me about my grandma, she told me that my grandma was delusional for believing that she had a psychic vision of the mailman killing kids. Before today, I had told my mom three visions that I have had. I have had several other visions that I hadn't told my mom, but it wasn't until today when she told me how she really felt about psychics."

"How many of your visions came true?" Chloe asked.

"Most of them if not all of them," Ronnie replied. "The ones I don't know about if they had come true or not, I wasn't able to stick around to witness them. And since you had asked me how many of my visions had come true, does that mean you believe I can get visions?"

"You getting future visions explain a couple of things involving you, so yeah, I believe you," Chloe said.

"What does it explain?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"Last September, you—while at home and not a part of the search party—knew that Maria's cat, Lady Bell, had been treed by Tommy's dog," Chloe replied.

"The day before Lady Bell was treed by Bandit, I had walked past Tommy's house, and while walking past the house, I saw a ghostly cat that looked like Lady Bell being chased up a tree by a ghostly dog that looked like Bandit," Ronnie began. "So I knew it was either going to happen in the near future or it had happened recently. And when I called you and learned that you were helping Maria to find Lady Bell, I was fairly certain that Lady Bell was in the tree."

"So you can see past events as well as future events?" Penny asked.

"Yes," Ronnie simply replied.

"Are your visions always of ghostly images?" Paul Sr. asked.

"Only the events that will take place or had taken place within twenty-four hours of the event," Ronnie replied. "The visions I get that go beyond twenty-four hours will come to me as either a waking dream or in an actual dream, and for whatever reason, I don't get visions that involve me or my family. Oh, and also I get nagging feelings about things,"

"What I know of psychics—which really isn't much—most psychics don't get visions of themselves or their family," Penny replied.

"How often do you get visions?" Chloe asked.

"Truthfully, not often," Ronnie said.

"But you did get a vision of Randy Lubbock totaling his car before he did so, didn't you?" Chloe asked.

"I never had a vision of that," Ronnie informed.

"Then why did you refuse a ride from Randy when he offered?" Chloe asked. "I'm not complaining mind you. Randy and Tiffany were seriously hurt in the crash, and by you refusing to get into his car, I had passed on the ride as well, which saved me from getting seriously hurt. Anyway, why did you refuse a ride from Randy?"

"Every person and every object has an aura and I can see every aura," Ronnie replied. "Everyone who gets to know Randy learns that Randy has a quick temper, but I didn't have to get to know him to learn that about him. I knew that from his aura. In fact, his aura bothers me on a normal day and the day I had refused to get inside his car, Randy's aura was flaring with anger. So was Tiffany's aura. I'm certain that the two were in the middle of a severe argument that day, and I didn't care to be around it."

"We have been friends for years, Ronnie," Chloe began. "Why hadn't you told me before today that you could see auras and get visions?"

"I was scared that once you find out, you would stop being my friend," Ronnie replied.

Chloe rolled her eyes before saying, "Veronica Jolene Mendes, you are my best friend. You are always there for me when I need a friend, so I'm not going to abandon you just because you have psychic abilities."

Ronnie pleasantly grinned before saying, "You don't know how relieved I am right now to hear you say that."

"I'm no psychic, but I think I have a good idea," Chloe replied with a grin. She then gestured towards her bedroom. "Anyway, let's go to my room and you can tell me about those visions that you had been too scared to tell me."

"Okay," Ronnie replied.

"Before you step away, Ronnie, I would like you to know that although I'm a therapist, I do believe in the paranormal." As a grin came across Ronnie's face, Penny continued to say, "In fact, one of my good friends, who I had known since college, is a bona fide psychic and my second cousin's wife—I can't think of her name at the moment—is a medium."

"A medium is a person who can see ghosts, correct?" Ronnie asked.

"Correct, although my cousin's wife calls ghosts, earthbound spirits," Penny replied. "Anyway, I just wanted you to know that everyone from this household knows that the paranormal is real."

"Thanks," Ronnie replied with a pleasant grin.

"Let's go," Chloe urged and gently pulling on Ronnie's arm for a moment.

Once Chloe let go of Ronnie's arm, she walked towards her room. Ronnie followed.

Penny waited until Ronnie and Chloe had left the room before standing up and saying, "I'll call Val and let her know that Ronnie's here."

"Val might know already," Paul Sr. replied.

"With Ronnie upset with her mom, I doubt that Ronnie would have told her mom where she was going before storming away," Penny said.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt anything to make sure that Val knows that her daughter is here," Paul Sr. replied.

Penny nodded in agreement before stepping away.

After Ronnie and Chloe made themselves comfortable in Chloe's bedroom, Ronnie told Chloe every vision she could remember in detail.

Several minutes later, once Ronnie said all she could about her visions, Chloe talked Ronnie into going to a movie at Ronnie's 20 Cine movie theater, but before they left the house, they called and invited three others, Chloe's boyfriend Jacob, their friend Dawn and Dawn's boyfriend Samuel.

Chloe drove her and Ronnie to Ronnie's 20 Cine in her family's blue Chevy Cruze and then waited the few minutes that it took for Jacob, Dawn and Samuel to get there.

Jacob and Samuel were both seventeen-years-old while Dawn was sixteen year's old; however, Dawn's seventeenth birthday was only two months away. Jacob stood 5' 11", Samuel stood 5' 8" and Dawn stood 5' 6".

Once everyone was gathered, Jacob asked Ronnie, "Will Eric be joining us?"

Ronnie shook her head before saying, "Eric is working."

"He works at Imos's Pizza, doesn't he?" Jacob questioned.

"He does and he's closing tonight," Ronnie replied.

"Is he a delivery driver?" Dawn asked.

"No, he cooks the pizzas," Ronnie replied.

"We should get in line for our tickets," Chloe urged.

"First we need to decide what we want to see," Dawn countered.

Ronnie, Chloe and Samuel wanted to watch the latest horror movie. Jacob wanted to watch the latest science fiction movie and Dawn wanted to see the latest romance movie.

After a short discussion about which movie they would see, they voted to watch the horror movie.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Hours later, Ronnie returned home around 10:50 P.M., and parked her car. Once she was out and her purse was over her shoulders, she faced the house, only to come to a complete halt.

"What the hell?" Ronnie uttered as she looked over every square inch to the front of the house.

Her attention was then drawn to her fifty-year-old neighbor, Mr. Steinberg as Mr. Steinberg walked his black Labrador towards her.

"Do you see any damages to your house, Ronnie?" Mr. Steinberg asked.

"No, no damages," Ronnie replied. "Why would there be damages?"

"A mild tremor occurred around 5:45 P.M. this afternoon," Mr. Steinberg informed.

"I didn't feel any tremor," Ronnie said.

"You must not have been home when it happened," Mr. Steinberg assumed aloud.

"I think I was actually driving away from the house around that time," Ronnie replied. "Regardless of where I was, shouldn't I have felt it?"

"I hear that people in a moving vehicle won't feel mild tremors; however, this particular tremor was only felt by people who lived no more than six hundred feet away," Mr. Steinberg informed.

Ronnie gave Mr. Steinberg a curious look before saying, "I thought we didn't live next to a fault line."

"We don't," Mr. Steinberg replied. "Whatever had caused that tremor, it wasn't caused by the movement of the fault line."

"Large trucks could cause the ground to shake," Ronnie pointed out. "I felt a truck shake the ground a couple of times."

"It wasn't a truck that caused it," Mr. Steinberg said. "The tremor lasted for more than five minutes and trucks don't cause the ground to shake for that long. Also from what I can gather from our neighbors, my house, your house and the other house next to yours felt it the worse. So whatever had caused the tremor, it was centered in this area. Anyway, have a good night, Ronnie. Come, Shadow."

"Good night, Mr. Steinberg," Ronnie replied before Mr. Steinberg led his dog away.

Ronnie gave her house a curious look before quietly saying, "House, I wonder if what had caused the tremor had also caused your aura to change color."

Ronnie then took a breath before moving towards the door.

Valerie and Shayne were watching TV in the living room (the first room to the right of the hallway). Kelly was out on a date with Bruce (her twenty-two-year-old boyfriend).

As Ronnie moved into the living room from the hallway, she looked over the room.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Shayne asked.

"I'm fine," Ronnie replied as she continued to look over the room. "But the aura of the house is different."

Valerie made a grunt that was filled with dread as Shayne asked, "In what way is the aura different?"

"Our house was emitting shades of blue and green, and the original shades of blue and green are still there… mostly, but now our house is emitting a peach color as well," Ronnie replied while noticing the aura of the floor. "And the floor has the same reddish orange color as…" goosebumps raised on Ronnie's arms and legs. As she quickly moved towards the basement door, she continued to say, "As Grandpa's table."

"Ronnie, what is it?" Shayne asked. When Ronnie didn't answer, Shayne continued, "Veronica! What is it?"

"Hopefully, nothing," Ronnie said before reaching the basement door.

Ronnie quickly opened the door, turned on the light and rushed downstairs.

Ronnie didn't have to reached the bottom before seeing the major changes to the basement and she stopped midway down while uttering, "Oh my God!" She then called out, "Mom! Dad! Come quickly!"

Valerie and Shayne rushed to Ronnie's aid and after reaching the top of the steps, Shayne demanded to know, "What is it, Ronnie?"

As Ronnie continued to the basement, she replied, "You'll have to see for yourself before you will believe it."

"What are you talking about?" Valerie replied while taking her first step down into the basement.

"You'll see," Ronnie replied while noticing the manuscripts scattered in front of the architect drafting table.

As Ronnie walked towards the architect drafting table, Valerie uttered, "Veronica, why can't you…" Valerie stopped in her tracks when she reached midway down and was able to see the basement. "Whoa! Where did all of this come from?"

Ronnie reached the drafting table and saw the fan-fiction blueprints as Shayne moved past Valerie on the steps.

Once Shayne was able to see the basement, he stopped too while muttering, "Where did…? How did…? This basement didn't look like this yesterday."

Ronnie received a strong static electrical shock when she reached for the blueprints, and after flinching and grunting slightly she reached for them again and ignoring the lesser electrical shock before grabbing them.

"Oh my God!" Ronnie uttered as she looked at the first page. "Our basement now looks like Dr. Monroe's Laboratory."

"Who's Dr. Monroe, Ronnie?" Valerie questioned as she and Shayne moved towards Ronnie.

"He's a comic book character in this comic book—'Batman's Fallen Dreams,'" Ronnie said while reading the heading of one of the pages. "I think I would have rethought that title."

"Wait; are you telling me that our basement now looks like something from a comic book?" Valerie questioned as if for verification.

"See for yourself," Ronnie replied while holding up the proper page in her right hand for Valerie to compare and looking at another page in her left hand. When Ronnie saw that the page had showed a secret bookcase-door that led to a secret storage room, she continued to say, "Wow, we may have a secret subbasement."

"What do you mean?" Shayne asked.

Shayne was the closest one to the secret bookcase-door and after Ronnie's gaze fell onto him, she said, "Dad, on that bookcase by you, rotate the griffin statue in a clockwise manner, and if I'm right about what it will do, it will open up a secret door to a subbasement."

"Let's find out," Shayne replied before stepping up to the bookcase.

Valerie and Ronnie stepped up to Shayne as he rotated the griffin statue. A click was heard followed by the bookcase swinging inward by only a few inches while hinged on the right.

Shayne pushed the bookcase-door open further and revealed a long set of stairs that went down.

Shayne took one stepped in before backing out and saying, "It's too dark. We need flashlights."

"Maybe not," Ronnie said as she looked at the manuscript pages again. After taking the time to find what she was looking for in the manuscript, she said, "Yes, I had a feeling that we didn't need flashlights. For light, pick up the dragon statue and set it on a ledge at the top of the stairwell,"

Shayne nodded before moving the statue.

There was only one way that the statue could be placed on the ledge and once the statue was in place, the ledge move downward slightly, which moved a lever and released a flow of kerosene from a fountain looking reservoir and into narrow stone channels that ran along the walls.

Kerosene ran into the dragon statue too, and once the kerosene reached a certain level, the ledge slightly dropped again.

The kerosene that was filling the stone channels stopped and a small fire ignited from the dragon's mouth and lighting the kerosene that was in the stone channels. Within seconds, the stairwell and the subbasement were well lit.

As Ronnie looked at the manuscript, she said, "According to these pages, we now have one of two options. Option one is extinguishing the fire at the dragon's mouth, emptying the kerosene from the dragon back into the reservoir and putting the statue back. If we went with this option, the kerosene will burn for about an hour before the kerosene is used up. Option two is leaving the statue in place and once the kerosene is used up, another flow of kerosene will be released with a momentary blackout."

"We will put the statue back, and next time we'll be using flashlights," Shayne informed.

"But using the dragon statue seems more adventurous," Ronnie replied.

"Veronica," Shayne said in a warning tone. "Using the dragon statue will not be repeated. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Ronnie replied with a slight grin.

Shayne turned away from Ronnie, blew out the fire at the dragon's mouth and dumped the kerosene back into the reservoir.

After putting the statue back on the bookshelf, Shayne descended the stairs. Valerie and Ronnie followed.

The ceiling of the subbasement was several feet below the city's plumbing and sewer system and was being held up by stone columns that were spaced twelve feet apart.

There were a hundred average height stairs from the basement floor to the subbasement floor, and once they were in the subbasement, they saw how huge the subbasement was.

"Oh my God," Ronnie uttered. "This subbasement is a hell of a lot wider and longer than our house."

"Veronica!" Valerie uttered. "Language."

"Sorry, Mom, but look at this place," Ronnie replied while spotting crates that were about sixty paces from them. As she gestured she said, "This subbasement extends underneath our neighbors' houses, and why are there things down here when there's nothing listed in the comic book."

Shayne looked before suggesting, "Maybe everything there was there, underground, before our basement was turned into this by a magical comic book."

"Let's see what treasure we have," Ronnie said while moving towards the crates.

Valerie and Shayne followed behind Ronnie and just before Ronnie was ten paces from the first crate another crate appeared from thin air that was six paces from her.

Ronnie stopped in her tracks before uttering, "Shit! Did you see that?"

"Veronica! Enough with your language," Valerie ordered.

"Are you seriously going to get onto me about my cussing when things are appearing out of thin air?" Ronnie questioned as she stepped up to the crate that had appeared out of thin air.

"I don't care if Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock materialize before us, Veronica," Valerie replied. "Watch your language."

"Oh my God, Mom," Ronnie began. "This crate is marked 'The Property of Warehouse 1."

"Okay," Valerie replied as if she didn't know what else to say.

"Warehouse 1," Ronnie repeated. "You were drawing out blueprints to Warehouse 14."

"Listen to me, Veronica," Valerie sternly began. "I did not draw out those blueprints."

"Then Grandpa's drafting table drew it out itself in your handwriting, Mom, but regardless, these crates and those blueprints that I found are connected to each other," Ronnie began. "Also those blueprints to Warehouse 14 weren't completed, but the blueprints to Dr. Monroe's laboratory and subbasement were."

"The tremor actually began, Valerie, soon after you ripped up those blueprints to Warehouse 14," Shayne began. "So Ronnie might be on to something. I think your dad's drafting table is somehow responsible for this."

"So we should do what? Destroy my dad's drafting table?" Valerie questioned.

"No, no, no," Shayne quickly replied. "Destroying those blueprints had started a tremor. There's no telling what would happen if we destroyed that table. And those comic book pages don't get destroyed either."

"Okay, then what should we do with the table?" Valerie asked as a huge crate materialized just inches behind Ronnie.

The shadow of the crate darkened their view of the crate that they were looking at, and Ronnie quickly spun around to look.

"Shit! That almost materialized on top of me," Ronnie uttered.

"Okay, let's get out of here before one of us gets hurt by one of these crates appearing out of thin air," Shayne strongly suggested.

"And maybe Ronnie will quit cursing," Valerie added.

"Doubtful," Ronnie playfully said.

"Veronica," Valerie said in a warning tone.

"Okay, okay, I will quit," Ronnie replied in a surrendering tone.

"Let's go," Shayne uttered while gesturing towards the stairs.

As Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie were heading for the stairs, Ronnie questioned, "Does anyone besides me smell fudge?"

"Yes, I've been having the taste of fudge in my mouth for days," Valerie replied. "In fact, I bought the mix to make fudge."

"Okay, well, I smell fudge down here and near grandpa's drafting table," Ronnie informed.

"Well, your grandpa did spend a lot of time at his table, so maybe he ate a lot of fudge at his table as well; he did like sweets," Valerie suggested. "I can't explain the fudge smell down here though."

"I think the magic that created this subbasement had come from the drafting table, and, Ronnie, since the fudge smell might be on the drafting table, then perhaps the table's magic is spreading the smell," Shayne said.

Ronnie slightly shrugged before saying, "That sounds like a good theory to me."

Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie had no problems at walking up the one hundred steps, and after reaching the basement, Shayne closed the bookcase-door and rotated the griffin statue to lock the door.

"Now what should we do with the table?" Ronnie asked while gesturing to it.

"Nothing tonight," Shayne replied. "It's too late to stop what is happening, so until we know more about what we're dealing with, I'm declaring the basement and subbasement off limits. So, everyone, out of the basement."

"You do know that our washer and dryer are down here?" Ronnie questioned as if to point out that fact.

"There are hardly any dirty clothes down here, so we're good for a few days," Valerie replied.

"And hopefully we'll find an answer before we need to do laundry, and if not, we'll go to the laundromat," Shayne added. He then gestured for Ronnie to go. "So out of the basement."

"I should clean up these manuscript pages," Ronnie replied.

"Okay, clean them up, and don't set them on the table this time," Shayne replied.

"I didn't the first time," Ronnie replied before moving towards the pages in the floor. "I set them on the shelf over the table and they had to have fallen onto the table."

"Okay, well put them somewhere away from the table," Shayne said. "I want nothing near that thing."

"I'll put them in the floor in that corner," Ronnie replied while gesturing towards a corner that had no objects near it for three feet.

"Where did these comic book manuscripts come from anyway?" Valerie asked.

"I bought them and an artist tool set this morning from a yard sale," Ronnie replied while gathering the pages. "They each had a disturbing aura."

"Are their auras as disturbing as the drafting table's aura?" Shayne questioned as he went to help Ronnie to pick up the pages.

"Yeah," Ronnie replied. "They each have a very active aura and when an object has an active aura, I find it disturbing."

"Remind me again, sweetheart, by what you mean about an active aura," Shayne requested.

"An active aura is an aura that greatly shimmers or twinkles," Ronnie began. "People and animals have active auras, and over ninety-five percent of objects do not have active auras. So I'm disturbed by an object's aura when it acts like a person's or an animal's aura."

"And you mentioned before that an object will absorb its owner's aura," Shayne said as if he was brainstorming.

"I didn't actually state it like that, but essentially 'yeah,'" Ronnie replied as she and Shayne continued to collect the scattered pages.

"Val, your dad was a workaholic and somehow, I think that he had transferred his energy… or at least a part of his energy to the drafting table," Shayne assumed.

"Okay, but what about our new subbasement and those blueprints for Warehouse 14?" Valerie asked.

"I don't know," Shayne admitted. "Apparently there is at least a Warehouse 1, so when I get back to work Monday morning, I'll see if I can find anything out about Warehouse 1 through Warehouse 13."

"Okay," Valerie said.

After Ronnie and Shayne had collected the scattered pages, Ronnie set them down in the corner on the floor. Ronnie, Valerie and Shayne then respectively left the basement.

Outside, Pete and Myka—while in a rental SUV—were casually driving around the neighborhood. Pete was the one driving as Myka was speaking to Artie on the Farnsworth.

"We are driving in and around the intersection of Hawthorne Avenue and Joy Avenue and everything in this area looks normal, Artie," Myka told him. "And Pete isn't getting any vibes."

"You're definitely in the right area, so just keep looking," Artie replied.

"Artie, I think that whoever had used the artifact didn't use it on purpose and is less likely to use it again knowing the results," Pete uttered slightly louder than necessary. Myka gave aid to her ears as Pete continued to say, "So I think, since it's late and most people are sleeping that Myka and I need to check into a hotel for the night and then come back in the morning to do a door by door search."

"Okay, fine," Artie replied. "Just find that artifact before another tremor strikes."

"On it," Pete replied.

"Anyway, Artie, any word on where Warehouse 14's location?" Myka asked.

"None, and a lot of Warehouse 1 artifacts have disappeared," Artie replied.

"Artie, it seems to me that the process of the artifacts' move from Warehouse 13 to their new home to be very slow," Pete replied as he turned on a street to leave the area. "I mean before we were able to stop Benedict Valda last week, the artifacts' move was moving much faster."

"Yes, I noticed that too and I don't really have an explanation for it; although, now that I think about it, I think the move from Warehouse 8 to Warehouse 9 had taken an extremely long time as well," Artie replied. "I'll call you back. I want to research why the move from Warehouse 8 to Warehouse 9 took as long as it did."

"Myka out," Myka said before the communication was ended.

Sunday morning at 3:00 A.M., Ronnie and Kelly were in the living room while watching a DVD of a new release.

Upstairs, Valerie rose from her king-size bed while in a supernatural trance. This time; however, as Valerie was leaving the room, Shayne was there and woke up.

"Val?" Shayne questioned. When Valerie didn't answer, he got up, put on his pants and followed behind her.

Shayne caught up to Valerie and called out to her before she could reach the stairs. As if Shayne never spoke to her, Valerie descended the stairs.

Ronnie and Kelly had heard Shayne calling out to Valerie, and after pausing the movie, they went to investigate. Valerie was coming off the steps when Ronnie and Kelly got to her.

"Mom, what's going on?" Kelly asked. When Valerie acted as if she didn't hear her, Kelly waved her hand in from of Valerie's face. "Mom!"

Shayne came off the steps behind Valerie, and when Valerie continued as if she was never called, Ronnie looked towards Shayne and uttered, "Oh my God. Dad, Mom looks like she's hypnotized. And her Aura… wow. Her aura is a solid purple."

"Okay, well, stand back, you two," Shayne instructed. "Hopefully your mom is only sleep-walking. I'm following her to make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

Ronnie and Kelly didn't say any more and when Shayne stepped past them, they followed as well.

Shayne, Kelly and Ronnie respectively followed Valerie down into the basement.

"Wow, Ron, you weren't kidding about the basement," Kelly said over her shoulder.

Ronnie only responded with a polite grin.

Shayne, Kelly and Ronnie stood back and watched as Valerie retrieved the subbasement blueprints from the comic book pages. They then watched Valerie as she took her place at the drafting table, picked up a pencil and began writing out the words, "Warehouse 14" onto the blueprints.

"That damn table is doing something to mom," Ronnie uttered after seeing what Valerie had written.

"Yes," Shayne said while gesturing for Ronnie to be quiet.

Ronnie—with her left hand grasping her amulet necklace—insisted, "Well, we need to wake her up."

"It's not safe to wake a sleep-walker," Shayne replied as Ronnie was an inch away from placing her right hand on Valerie's back.

A static discharge from Ronnie's right hand to Valerie's back was, not only strongly felt by the two, but seen by everyone, and Valerie came out of her trance with a start.

Ronnie yanked her hand back quickly with a verbal 'ow' after the shock and then watched as Valerie's aura return to her normal purplish blue.

"What's going on?" Valerie quickly demanded to know while looking around. "Where am I?'

"You were sleep-walking," Shayne began. "You came down here and wrote 'Warehouse 14' on the comic book page."

"Oh my god," Valerie uttered while dropping the pencil, jumping up from her seat and stepping back. "If I did this, then maybe I did write out those Warehouse 14 blueprints."

"I believe so," Shayne replied. "I believe since the drafting table couldn't write out the blueprints itself, it was using you to do it as you slept."

"Why does it want blueprints of Warehouse 14?" Valerie asked.

"I think that's a question to figure out later," Shayne said. "I don't know what the exact time is, but I do know that it's a few minutes after three in the morning, and I would like to go back to sleep."

"If I go back to sleep, what's going to keep me from sleep-walking again?" Valerie asked.

"Hopefully like before, you'll wake me up when you leave the bed," Shayne replied.

"Ronnie could always shock you again too, Mom, if we see you sleep-walking again," Kelly playfully said.

"That was an accident," Ronnie insisted. "And my hand is still stinging from it."

"Okay, let's go to bed," Shayne strongly suggested. "Kelly; Ronnie, you two go to bed too."

"We are in a middle of a show," Ronnie replied.

"I don't want you two staying up all night and sleeping all day, so record it and watch it later," Shayne said.

"It's on DVD," Kelly said.

"Even better," Shayne replied. "You can watch it any time during the day. So go turn off the TV and the DVD player and go to bed."

"Fine," Ronnie and Kelly said before leading the way up the steps.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Hours later, at 10:15 A.M., Myka and Pete had spoken with Mr. Steinberg and were now returning to their rental SUV. Once Myka and Pete were several feet from the SUV, Ronnie—while dressed in blue jeans, a blue sleeveless pullover shirt that had white stars and white stripes and blue tennis shoes—exited the house with a bag of recyclable trash.

Myka slightly smacked Pete's arm before gesturing towards Ronnie and saying, "Let's see what she can tell us about the tremor."

Myka and Pete lightly jogged towards Ronnie and had caught up to her just before she could reach the recyclable trash bin.

When Ronnie looked towards Myka and Pete, Myka flashed her badge and said, "Hi. I'm Agent Bering. He's my partner Agent Lattimer. May we talk with you for a few minutes?"

Ronnie stared at Pete for a brief moment with a curious expression on her face before dragging her stare from Pete and onto Myka and asking, "What do FBI agents want to talk to me about?"

"Actually, we are Secret Service and we are investigating the unusual tremor that was felt last night in this area," Pete replied.

"So we would like to ask you a few questions about last night," Myka added.

"Okay," Ronnie replied. "I'll answer your questions if I can, but I doubt that I could tell you much."

"You might know more about last night than you think," Pete replied. "We never know what every day people like yourself could provide my partner and me until after we begin our questions."

"Okay," Ronnie replied in an uncertain manner.

"Our first question is a simple one; one that you will know," Myka began. "What is your name?"

Ronnie slightly grinned before saying, "Veronica Mendes, but everyone calls me Ronnie."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ronnie," Myka told her.

"Thanks," Ronnie replied as if she didn't know how else to reply. "It's nice to meet you two."

Myka slightly grinned before asking, "Ronnie, have you recently smelled fudge when there was no fudge?"

Ronnie pursed her lips for a moment before honestly answering, "Yes."

Myka's attention and Pete's attention piqued as Myka asked, "Where were you when you smelled fudge?"

Ronnie pursed her lips again before saying, "Before I answer that, I need to ask you a question."

"Okay," Myka replied in an uncertain manner.

"Does Warehouse 14 mean anything to either of you?" Ronnie question while studying their reaction.

Myka's and Pete's reactions were of slightly taken back as Pete asked, "Ronnie, where have you heard of Warehouse 14?"

"I need you to tell me that it means something to you before I can answer that," Ronnie told him.

"Yes, yes, it does," Pete replied. "Now I need you to tell me what you know of Warehouse 14."

"I'll show you instead," Ronnie replied before continuing to the recyclable trash can.

"What do you mean that you will show us," Pete questioned as he and Myka followed Ronnie to the trash can.

"You'll see," Ronnie replied before setting down the trash bag on the trash can lid and going into the bag.

Myka and Pete patiently watched Ronnie as she retrieved pieces of paper from the trash bag.

As Ronnie was pulling pieces of paper out, Myka saw the word 'Warehouse' on one of the pieces.

"Ronnie, what is that?" Myka quickly asked while gesturing.

"Ripped up blueprints for Warehouse 14," Ronnie replied.

"And where did you get them?" Pete quickly asked.

"My mom had drawn them while sleep-walking," Ronnie replied. "At first she was in denial about doing it, but then around three this morning my dad and my sister and I caught her in the act of altering another blueprint while sleep-walking."

Myka looked disturbingly towards the house while saying, "Ronnie, you need to believe me right now when I say that there is an object inside your house that is potentially dangerous. Pete and I need to get inside and find out what object is causing your mom to sleep-walk and draw out blueprints labeled Warehouse 14."

"You will need my dad's permission first to come inside," Ronnie replied. "But before I go get my dad, I would like to know what you will do with the potentially dangerous object."

"Ronnie, my and Pete's job is to find potentially dangerous objects and then put them somewhere out of people's reach," Myka said.

"Do you put the potentially dangerous objects in crates, mark them as property of… let say Warehouse 1 and then store them in warehouse 1?" Ronnie asked.

"Okay, that question is a bit too specific," Pete told Ronnie.

"But am I right?" Ronnie asked.

Myka took a chance and said, "Ronnie, I feel that I can be honest with you. Pete and I are known as warehouse agents. The current active warehouse is Warehouse 13 and every potentially dangerous object that gets found is stored at Warehouse 13; including the objects that used to be stored in Warehouse 1 through 12."

"Thanks for not lying to me, Agent Bering," Ronnie gratefully said. Myka nodded with a grin. Ronnie gestured toward the house before continuing with, "I'll go get my dad… Oh, but before I do, you two should know that my mom had ripped up the blueprints to Warehouse 14 the very second before the tremor occurred, so I think my mom had inadvertently caused the tremor."

"Ronnie, why did your mom rip up the blueprints?" Pete asked.

Ronnie shrugged before saying, "You will have to ask her. I was actually leaving in my car at the time. In fact, I didn't even feel the tremor. I learn about the tremor after I got home though. I do know that yesterday afternoon, when I took the blueprints to my mom, my mom had flat refused to believe that she drew them even though they were in her handwriting. So my guess, she ripped them up because she was tired of looking at them. Anyway, I'll go get my dad."

"Okay," Myka replied before Ronnie opened up the recyclable trash bin. Before Ronnie could throw away the bag, Myka gestured towards the bag and said, "Ronnie, if you don't mind, I would like all of the ripped pieces to the blueprints. I'll get them out and throw the rest away. You go get your dad."

"Okay," Ronnie said before handing over the bag.

Once Myka had the bag, Ronnie jogged to the house. After stepping in she hollered out for her dad.

"What is it, Ronnie?" Shayne questioned as he and Valerie respectively stepped into the hallway from the kitchen. Shayne had filthy hands and was wiping them on a dirty towel.

"There are two warehouse agents from Warehouse 13 outside," Ronnie began as Kelly stepped into the hallway from the living room. "They're here investigating the tremor. Dad; Mom, they know about objects like Grandpa's drafting table. In fact, hunting down objects like Grandpa's drafting table and storing the objects at Warehouse 13 is their job."

"Did you tell them about your grandpa's drafting table?" Valerie asked.

"No," Ronnie replied. "They just know about the ripped up blueprints to Warehouse 14. I didn't say anything about the drafting table or the basement or even the subbasement. However, they do want to come inside and search for a potentially dangerous object."

"Ronnie, go out and invite them in," Shayne said. "I'm going to wash up."

"What are you doing?" Ronnie asked him.

"I'm trying to fix the garbage disposal," Shayne replied.

"Emphases on trying," Valerie playfully added.

"Well, I fixed it once before," Shayne replied as he moved towards the stairs. "Anyway, Ronnie, go invite the warehouse agents in and have them wait in the living room."

"Okay," Ronnie replied before turning and walking away.

Valerie followed Ronnie to the door. Kelly had also remained in the hallway next to the living room as Shayne ascended the stairs.

Pete was near the front door and Myka was almost midway from the rental SUV to the house when Ronnie opened the door.

"I was told to invite you two in," Ronnie told Pete.

"Agent Bering had put the blueprints in the SUV, so let's give her a moment to catch up," Pete replied.

Ronnie nodded in agreement, and after a short wait, Ronnie, Myka and Pete entered the hallway from the front door.

"Agent Bering, Agent Lattimer meet my mom, Valerie and my sister Kelly," Ronnie said while making hand gestures.

When Myka and Pete saw Valerie for their first time, Myka pursed her lips slightly as if she was trying not to say something while Pete held an expression as if he was trying to mentally solve a puzzle.

"Nice to meet you, Agent Bering, Agent Lattimer," Valerie said while offering to shake hands.

Pete—while continuing to act as if he was trying to mentally solve a puzzle—shook Valerie's hand and said, "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Mendes." Once the handshake ended, Pete—as his expression shifted to a neutral expression—waved to Kelly. "And it's nice to meet you, Kelly."

"Nice to meet you, Agent Lattimer," Kelly replied as Myka was shaking Valerie's hand and echoing Pete's greetings to Valerie.

"My husband had been working on the garbage disposal and is now upstairs washing his hands," Valerie shared. "So he'll be down soon."

"Okay," Myka and Pete said.

"In the meantime, Mrs. Mendes, I understand from Ronnie that you had drawn out blueprints for Warehouse 14 while you were sleep-walking," Pete continued.

"So I recently discovered," Valerie replied.

"Mrs. Mendes, I know that this is going to sound unbelievable, but you need to believe me," Myka began. "There is a potentially dangerous object in this house that is causing you to sleep-walk and draw out blueprints. And it is important for Agent Lattimer and me to locate that object as soon as possible and remove it from your home."

"The object that you two are looking for is my dad's architect drafting table," Valerie began. "It's in the basement, and seeing what it had done to my basement, I actually want it gone, but before you two came, I wasn't sure what to do with it."

"Mrs. Mendes, what did the drafting table do to your basement?" Myka asked.

"I'm not sure what all Ronnie had told you and your partner when she spoke with you two outside, but I think I caused that tremor last night when I ripped up those blueprints," Valerie said.

"Yes, Ronnie had told me her belief of you inadvertently causing the tremor," Myka replied.

"Yes, well, several minutes before that, Ronnie had placed pages to a few comic book manuscripts on a shelf over the drafting table," Valerie was only able to get out.

"They were Batman, Superman and Spiderman fan-fiction comic book manuscripts actually," Ronnie added. "I bought them yesterday morning from a yard sale."

"Anyway," Valerie uttered before anything else could be said. "Among the comic book manuscripts were complete blueprints to one of the comic book character's laboratory and to the character's secret basement below the laboratory."

"I fairly certain that the secret basement was a secret storage facility," Ronnie added.

"Regardless, yesterday's tremor had caused almost all of the manuscript pages to fall onto the floor, except for the laboratory and the secret storage facility blueprints. They landed on the table and my basement now looks like the laboratory from the comic book pages."

"If your basement looks like the laboratory from the comic book, does that mean that there's a secret storage facility below your basement as well?" Pete excitingly asked.

"There is," Shayne replied while descending the steps.

"Mr. Mendes. Hi, I'm Agent Lattimer and this is my partner Agent Bering," Pete replied while looking towards Shayne as he descended the stairs.

"I'm Detective Mendes, actually," Shayne replied before reaching the bottom. "And if you two warehouse agents wouldn't have found us when you did, I would have come looking for you."

"Yes, well, unless you absolutely know who to contact, looking for warehouse agents is a bit like looking for one particular needle in a large stack of needles," Pete replied as Shayne was coming off the stairs.

"Yes, well, I think I have something that would have helped me find you," Shayne said.

"What do you have?" Pete challenged.

"Crates from Warehouse1," Shayne replied.

"Wait, you have crates from Warehouse 1 here?" Myka replied.

"Yes, they're in my new and huge secret subbasement, and you two are more than welcome to have them back," Shayne replied.

"Pete, we just found the site for Warehouse 14," Myka said.

"What?" Valerie quickly questioned.

"The short version to a very long story is that a mad man had tried to steal the warehouse last week by stealing the Mason Setting Maul from us and activating the Mason Compass," Myka began. "Those two items and another item known as the Mason Square allow the warehouse to move from one location to another, and we had stopped him and recovered the setting maul and the square, and we thought we had deactivated the Mason Compass, but the Mason Compass had reactivated itself a few hours later."

"I'm going to guess that you would normally know where the warehouse was moving to, but in this particular case, you didn't," Shayne assumed.

"Correct," Myka replied.

"It sounds to me as if the warehouse wants to move and it had reached out and found my grandpa's drafting table to substitute for the setting maul and the square," Kelly added.

"An excellent theory," Pete praised while pointing to Kelly.

"Okay, well, if the drafting table is the substitute item for the setting maul and the square then neutralizing the table should stop the warehouse from moving," Myka replied.

"If the warehouse wants to move then what will stop the warehouse from reaching out and finding the next item like the drafting table?" Ronnie questioned.

"Although an excellent point, we still have to neutralize the drafting table," Myka replied.

"I wasn't suggesting that you don't neutralize it," Ronnie replied. "I was just pointing out what might happen."

"I know," Myka replied with a slight grin.

"Detective Mendes, I would like to see your basement and subbasement," Pete told him.

"Certainly," Shayne replied before he began walking towards the basement. "Come with me."

Pete and Myka followed Shayne as Valerie, Ronnie and Kelly followed them.

After reaching the basement, Myka and Pete looked at the drafting table and learned everything they could about it. They then looked at the blueprints to Dr. Monroe's laboratory and storage facility.

When Pete saw how the subbasement was illuminated from the comic book pages, he uttered, "Ooh, please tell me this is how the subbasement is lit up."

"It is, but Dad doesn't want to light it up like that," Ronnie quickly replied before Shayne or Valerie could respond.

"Agent Bering and Agent Lattimer need to see everything, so this time, we'll light it up as it shows in the comic book pages," Shayne told Ronnie.

"Cool," Ronnie and Pete replied.

Like he did several hours ago, Shayne opened the bookcase-door and then placed the dragon statue on the ledge.

Pete was standing in a good position to watch as the dragon statue released a flow of kerosene and then lighting it.

Also like he did several hours ago, Shayne blew out the fire on the dragon's mouth and dumped the kerosene back into the reservoir.

After putting the statue back on the bookshelf, everyone descended the stairs.

After reaching the subbasement Kelly and Pete excitingly replied, "Wow."

They then continued towards the crates. Once at the crates, Pete pulled out his Farnsworth and contacted Artie.

"Pete, I was about to call you," Artie answered. "I think I pinpointed Warehouse 14's location either in Mexico or in Brazil."

"Actually, Artie, Warehouse 14 is located on Hawthorne Avenue," Pete said before pointing the Farnsworth so Artie could see the Warehouse 1 crates. More crates materialized several feet from them while Pete was pointing the Farnsworth towards the crates.

"But how is that possible?" Artie rhetorically asked. Pete looked into the Farnsworth as Artie continued to say, "The rule is that when the warehouse moves, it will move to a different country."

Myka moved to see into the Farnsworth while saying, "Artie, the warehouse is substituting an architect drafting table and a set of blueprints for the Mason square and the setting maul, and since the warehouse is using different items, then perhaps the rules has changed."

"Lovely," Artie sarcastically replied. "The warehouse is now changing the rules on us. Anyway, neutralize that architect drafting table and those blueprints so we can halt this move."

"We will," Pete replied. "But we fear that neutralizing the drafting table and blueprints will only temporary halt the move."

"Why… why do you say that?" Artie asked.

"It has been suggested that the warehouse wants to move and had reached out and found a means to do it," Pete began. "So once we neutralize the drafting table and those blueprints, we believe that there's a chance that the warehouse will reach out again and find something else to reactivate the move."

"The warehouse wants to move," Artie replied as if considering the situation. "Okay, we'll deal with each move attempt as it pops up, and hopefully before the warehouse could actually complete a move attempt, we can coax the warehouse into staying put. Anyway, put an end to this move attempt."

"Will do. Pete out," he said before closing the Farnsworth and looking towards Shayne. "Okay, Myka and I need to get our neutralizing equipment from our SUV, and the SUV is parked out front."

"Alright. Let's go back upstairs," Shayne replied before they moved towards the stairs.

"I can't help to notice that you four are taking what is happening here well," Myka replied.

"Yes, well, we can't deny what is happening here," Valerie replied. "So it's either take it well or run away from this."

"And we are not ones to run away when it comes to bizarre situations," Kelly added.

"I hope I can trust you four to keep this bizarre situation confidential," Pete told them.

"Yes, you can," Shayne was the first one to reply and in a tone as if he was making it an order among his family.

"Of course," Valerie, Ronnie and Kelly added.

After returning to the basement, Pete continued to the SUV for a canister of the neutralizing goo and a bag for the blueprints.

The conversation between everyone was light during the time that it took for Pete to return.

With everyone watching from a slight distance, Pete immediately and completely covered the drafting table with the neutralizer. Immediately following the sparks that the table produced from being neutralized, another tremor struck the area and what didn't originally belong to Valerie and her family before the first tremor vanished quickly from sight.

Once the basement had return to normal, the tremor quickly subsided.

"Wow!" Ronnie uttered while staring at the drafting table. "The table's aura is not even half as active now."

"Wait!" Pete quickly uttered. "Ronnie, can you sense auras?"

Ronnie pursed her lips before saying, "I don't care if you believe me or not, but everyone and everything has an aura and I can see those auras."

"Myka and I believe you, Ronnie," Pete assured her. Myka nodded in agreement. "A friend of ours, who had also worked at Warehouse 13, could see auras as well. Sadly, she's no longer there and we miss her deeply."

"She died, didn't she?" Ronnie questioned as if for varication.

"Yes," Pete replied in a remorseful tone. "She died about a year ago."

"Agent Lattimer, your aura doesn't behave like other people's auras," Ronnie informed.

"What do you mean it doesn't behave like other people's auras?" Pete questioned.

Ronnie thought of what she had told Scott before saying, "A person who is completely void of any moods or emotions will have a single color aura. I personally call that a resting aura. And, except for people who are sleeping in a dreamless sleep, everybody is filled with light to severe emotions; such as happiness, sadness and anger just to mention a few. Once I get to know a person, I can tell you what that person's mood is because that person's aura will crackle with only flecks of another color; except for you, Agent Lattimer. Instead of your aura crackling with flecks of another color, it completely shifts shades and colors. In fact, I can't figure out what your resting aura's color is. Although, I think I figured out that when your aura is deep purple, you're sad for a lost loved one."

"Leena… Leena Williams." Pete gestured towards Myka and himself while continuing to say, "Our friend who could also see auras, told me once that my aura was in tune and that for a person to have an aura like mine was very rare."

"In tune," Ronnie said in a thoughtful tone. "I like that description, and since I've never seen an aura like yours before, I agree that your aura is rare."

Pete was about to say something, but stopped when Myka said, "Mrs. Mendes, you actually look a lot like Leena."

Pete snapped his fingers while uttering slightly, "Yes. Thank you." When everyone gave him a curious look, he continued to say, "I had been racking my brain while wondering if you and I had met before, Mrs. Mendes. It isn't that we met; it's that you remind me of Leena and I couldn't make that connection until Myka had pointed it out."

Valerie nodded with a polite grin as Myka continued to say, "Anyway, Mrs. Mendes, I don't know how true it is, but about a year ago… maybe slightly longer, I had read something that stated that blood relatives are most likely to share the same psychic ability."

"Agent Bering, I get the feeling that you are about to ask if Leena could be related to us," Valerie began. "And it's possible. My mom can see auras as well, so that is where Ronnie gets her ability from; however, my mom was adopted days after she was born. So we could be related to several people and not even know it."

"And there's the second fun fact that I learned about your mom this weekend, Mom," Ronnie made note of in an unhappy tone before Myka could respond. "Although learning about Grandma doing life in a federal prison yesterday for the last thirty-seven years for killing a mailman was more of a doozy."

"Veronica, please don't," Valerie quickly requested.

"You lied to me about Grandma, Mom, so I think I have the right to be upset over it," Ronnie replied.

"Okay, yes you do have the right to be upset, and you can be upset with me as long as you want, but this isn't the time to air out your grievances," Valerie replied.

"Fine," Ronnie replied. "I'll drop it for now."

"Thank you," Valerie replied.

"Detective Mendes; Mrs. Mendes, so this table and the blueprints don't cause any more harm, Agent Lattimer and I are going to take them," Myka informed.

"After seeing what the table can do, you have my blessing to take them," Valerie replied.

"While you have your neutralizer down here, can I get you two to neutralize a few other things?" Ronnie asked.

"You think you have other artifacts in the basement?" Myka questioned.

"I go to yard sales, thrift shops and antiques stores and buy curios with active auras," Ronnie began. "And in case Leena described active auras differently, an active aura is an aura that greatly shimmers or twinkles. Also people and animals have active auras, and over ninety-five percent of objects do not have active auras."

"Leena had described objects as being active or alive, but not auras as being active," Myka replied.

"Leena had never mentioned that auras would twinkle or shimmer, so I don't think Leena could see the twinkles or the shimmers; however, I do think that she felt them," Pete added. "I think this because Leena would always get a nagging feeling when an artifact was in the room, but it took her a minute or two to identify which object it was. Anyway, which objects need neutralizing?"

Ronnie gestured towards the items while saying, "The entire stack of comic book manuscripts; the artist tool set; the sun clock on the wall; those bookends; that bird cage; that garden gnome…"

"Okay, wait," Pete interrupted. "I'll need to get more neutralizer from the SUV."

"Okay. You do that and I'll start with the garden gnome," Myka said while gesturing to the garden gnome—the closest object to her.

As Pete walked towards the stairs, Myka completely covered the garden gnome with the neutralizer. Sparks flew in every direction.

Myka then neutralized two other objects, and as Myka was neutralizing the fourth object, Pete was returning with more neutralizer.

"Pete, we may have to make Ronnie and honorary warehouse agent," Myka told him while shooting Ronnie a grin, which put a grin on Ronnie's face. "She definitely had taken artifacts off the streets."

"Artie will be pleased," Pete said before he went to work as well.

Ronnie had collected fifteen small to large curios with active auras and after Myka and Pete neutralized everything that Ronnie had pointed out, Myka asked, "Is that it?"

Ronnie had her necklace beneath her shirt, and she pursed her lips and touched her necklace-lump with her left hand before lying, "That's it."

Myka thought she had sensed the lie and gave Ronnie a skeptical stare for a brief moment before breaking her stare and saying, "Okay. If there are no more artifacts to neutralize, then Pete and I will load what we have into the SUV and be on our way."

Ronnie nodded with a polite grin before Myka and Pete went to carry the artifacts away.

Once the last artifact was in the SUV, Myka had given Ronnie her personal cell phone number so Ronnie could contact her when she came across more artifacts.

Myka and Pete then exchanged goodbyes with Valerie, Shayne, Ronnie and Kelly and drove away.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

As the day progressed, Valerie and Shayne did odd chores around the house. Kelly left the house around 1:00 P.M., to meet up with her boyfriend Bruce.

Eric picked up Ronnie minutes after Kelly had left, and then talked Ronnie into playing an eighteen-hole golf game at Forest Park golf course.

Eric was one month older than Ronnie. He was Caucasian with light brown hair. He stood 5' 8" and although he wasn't athletic, he loved sports. Golf was his favorite sport.

After the fifth hole of the game, Ronnie's joyful façade towards golf began to wane and her boredom began to gain strength.

Before Eric teed off from the seventh hole, he asked Ronnie, "You're not going to play golf with me again, are you?"

Ronnie shot him a curious look before asking, "Why are you asking me that?"

"Because you look bored as hell," Eric pointed out.

"Okay, I'll admit that actual golf isn't my thing, but you like it, and as long as we are dating, I have no problems with going golfing with you again." Ronnie then shrugged as she continued to say, "And who knows. If I ever start hitting the ball in the right direction and start getting less than double par each hole, I might like the game."

"Fair enough," Eric said with a slight grin. He then bent down and gave Ronnie a kiss. The kiss lasted for only a moment before he ended it and took his shot.

Ronnie and Eric's game took four hours to complete with Eric winning, and once they left the golf course, they went to the closest Dairy Queen to Ronnie's house.

Chloe, Dawn, Jacob and Samuel were there while sitting at a four-person table and eating, and once Ronnie and Eric ordered their food, they went to take the empty table next to them.

"Hey, everyone," Ronnie told her four friends. Ronnie's long-strap denim purse crossed her back and chest from her left shoulder to her right hip.

"Hey, Ronnie," they replied. "Hey, Eric."

When Eric didn't exchange pleasantries, Ronnie looked towards him and saw him looking towards Tina Henshaw—a sixteen-year-old Caucasian blonde woman who they all knew. Tina was eating with her mom and little brother two tables away. After Ronnie saw who Eric was looking at, she saw that Eric's aura was crackling with flecks of reddish pink.

In a slightly annoyed tone, Ronnie told Eric, "I'm going to the bathroom."

Without waiting for a reply, Ronnie moved quickly towards the bathroom.

"Okay," Eric said barely above a whisper and in a confused tone as he watched Ronnie walk away.

"Where's Ronnie going?" Dawn asked Eric.

"She said she was going to the bathroom," Eric replied. "And for whatever reason, she sounded upset when she spoke."

"I'll go find out," Chloe replied before standing and walking away.

Eric took a seat at the table on the side where he could see Tina, along with his back being to Chloe's table.

Ronnie went directly to the sink, and as she turned on the faucet, Chloe walked in.

"Hey, Ron," Chloe said after stepping in. Ronnie glanced towards Chloe as she washed her hands. "How are things between you and Eric?"

"I thought things were fine between us, but a moment ago I saw that things aren't fine," Ronnie replied before turning off the faucet.

"What happen a moment ago?" Chloe asked.

"I saw Eric's aura while he was staring at Tina," Ronnie replied as she went to dry her hands. "He would rather be with her than with me."

"Tina doesn't like Eric, so you have nothing to worry about," Chloe replied.

"Today was our third date, and I can tell from his aura that he has no real romantic feelings for me," Ronnie replied. "He's only dating me out of convenience."

"So what are you going to do?" Chloe asked.

Ronnie considered her answer before saying, "I'm going to end things tonight before one of us hurts the other."

"I'm sorry that things won't work out between you and Eric," Chloe genuinely said.

"Me too," Ronnie replied remorsefully. "I actually like him."

"Did you drive here or did you ride with Eric?" Chloe asked.

"I rode with Eric," Ronnie replied.

"Okay, well, if you need a ride home, I can give you a ride," Chloe informed.

"Okay, thanks," Ronnie said in an appreciative tone. Chloe nodded with a grin. Ronnie then gestured towards the door. "We should go back out there."

"Alright," Chloe replied before she and Ronnie left the restroom.

Ronnie noticed that her meal and Eric's meal were on the table and on the same side of the table as she approached. She then saw that Eric was sitting where he could see Tina.

Once Ronnie reached the table, she sat across from Eric instead of in front of her food and then reached into her purse.

"Is everything okay, Ronnie?" Eric asked as Ronnie took out three twenty-dollar bills.

Ronnie slightly hesitated before taking a breath and saying, "No. Everything isn't okay."

"What's wrong?" Eric asked in a genuinely concern tone.

"I really like you, Eric," Ronnie said in a serious tone.

"And I really like you too, Ronnie," Eric said.

"Well, I have romantic feelings for you," Ronnie added.

"Okay, well, if you're telling me that you want romance, I can be romantic," Eric said in a slightly confused tone.

Ronnie lowered her voice so only Eric could hear as she said, "What I want is for you to look me in the eyes, tell me that you have very strong romantic feelings for me and mean those words."

"Ronnie, what's going on with you?" Eric quickly asked.

"Your aura crackles with flecks of reddish pink when you are romantically aroused." Ronnie listed blonde headed women, "Tina Henshaw arouses you. Nicole Vanderfield arouses you. Sally Voss arouses you. In fact, I'm fairly certain that all Caucasian blonde women arouse you. I don't arouse you."

"Ronnie, you do arouse me," Eric replied.

"Not according to your aura," Ronnie said.

"Well, you're reading my aura wrong," Eric insisted.

"I really want for that to be the case, but it isn't," Ronnie replied. "You have a type of women who you find romantically arousing, and unfortunately for me, I'm not part of that group of women."

"Ronnie, you're wrong," Eric said while reaching over the table, as if reaching for her, but when Ronnie leaned back a little to put another inch of distance between them, Eric dropped his hand on the table.

"People lie; people can even lie to themselves, but auras never lie," Ronnie replied. "Now, I know you like me, but you only like me as a friend."

"If you suspected that I only like you as a friend, then why did you agree to go out with me?" Eric snapped.

"Because I do romantically like you and I have seen friendship between two people turn into a romantic relationship before. I thought ours could, but after seeing you ogle Tina, I now see that it won't. So I'm ending this while we are still friends." Ronnie held out the three twenties as she continued to say, "And here. Here's sixty bucks for my game of golf and for my meal."

Eric stared at the money for a moment before taking it and saying, "I wasn't ogling Tina."

"Auras don't lie," Ronnie replied as she reached for her food.

As Ronnie was sliding her food to her, Eric questioned, "Okay, well, didn't you tell me once that when my aura crackles with red that I was angry."

"When your aura crackles with blood red, you're angry," Ronnie corrected. "When your aura crackles with reddish pink, you're romantically or sexually aroused by someone and when your aura crackles with reddish orange—more red than orange—you are jealous. Oh, and also, when your aura crackles with yellowish red, you're either embarrassed or self-conscious about something."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Eric replied before he pocketed the sixty dollars. "And regardless of what the color of my aura is telling you, I had a good time with you today and during the past week."

Ronnie pleasantly grinned before saying, "Me too, and as friends, I wouldn't mind joining you again for a game of golf sometime."

"Careful, I might take you up on that offer," Eric playfully said.

Ronnie amusingly grinned before say, "Oh, uh, if you don't want to drive me home after we eat, I'll get a ride from Chloe."

"I'll take you home," Eric quickly assured Ronnie.

"Okay," Ronnie said with a grin.

Ronnie and Eric then began to eat their meals.

At Valerie and Shayne's house, Mrs. Frederic—while carrying a briefcase—stepped up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

Shayne was the one to answer the door, and once the door was open wide, he questioned, "Yes? May I help you?"

"Detective Mendes, I'm Irene Frederic. I'm in charge of Warehouse 13, and I would like to speak with you and your wife. So may I come in?"

"Uh, sure," Shayne replied before backing up. "Come in, Ms. Frederic."

"Although I'm a widow, I still prefer to be addressed by Mrs. Fredrick," she replied while stepping in.

"Of course," Shayne replied. "Anyway, my wife is in the living room."

The TV was on and was playing a repeat episode of 'Bones', and before Shayne and Mrs. Frederic could enter the living room, Valerie turned down the volume.

Shayne introduced Mrs. Frederic to Valerie soon after they walked in. Once the introductions were over, Shayne said, "Mrs. Frederic, if you are concern about us keeping Warehouse 13 confidential, my entire family and I know the importance of doing so."

"Yes, I will admit that I am concern about that," Mrs. Frederic began. "However, I think I came up with a solution that will benefit everyone."

"What did you come up with, Mrs. Frederic?" Valerie asked first.

"The closest town to Warehouse 13 is Univille. It's in South Dakota and the town is approximately seven miles from the warehouse," Mrs. Frederic began. "Unaware by the residence of Univille, the town is actually owned by the government and it falls under the jurisdiction of the warehouse. So I can appoint anyone I want to fill certain positions, such as making someone the proprietor of a bed and breakfast lodging house or making someone the sheriff of the town."

"You want my husband and I to fill those two positions, don't you, Mrs. Frederic?" Valerie quickly asked before Shayne could respond.

"Yes, I do," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Those two positions aren't filled already?" Shayne asked.

"The lodge is currently being managed by Abigail Cho." As Mrs. Frederic continued, she looked at Valerie, "However, Abigail is actually a psychotherapist and not a hotel manager as you are, Mrs. Mendes…"

"I'm only an assistant manager," Valerie said.

Mrs. Frederic nodded to the correction before she continued to say, "Anyway, Abigail's talents are being wasted as the proprietor of a lodge. She knows it and the regents—the people who I report to—know it, so replacing Abigail as the proprietor with someone more suited for that position had always been the plan. As for the sheriff position, there is an acting sheriff in place at the moment. The last sheriff was frightened away about four months ago by a gargoyle statue coming to life."

Shayne slightly chuckled with little humor before saying, "Something tells me that there's a large turnover rate in Univille when it comes to sheriffs."

"Yes, and with your help, Detective Mendes, I'm hoping that that will change soon," Mrs. Frederick replied. "Also, I have a position that I would like your daughter Ronnie to fill. Is she here?"

"No; she's not here at the moment," Shayne replied. "And, I'm fairly certain that you want Ronnie to do what Leena was doing; whatever that was."

"Certain artifacts have negative effect on other artifacts and Leena had used her aura sensing ability to know which artifacts to keep separated from one another and which artifacts that can be safely stored together," Mrs. Frederic began. "Of course I was informed that Ronnie's ability isn't quite the same as Leena's ability, but I'm hoping that Ronnie can perform the same task that Leena did."

"That sounds like a dangerous task," Valerie quickly said.

"I assure you, Mrs. Mendes, that it is extremely less dangerous than Ronnie collecting and storing artifacts in your basement," Mrs. Frederic began. "Ronnie had gotten lucky that she didn't store the wrong two artifacts together or had collected an artifact that would have started a catastrophe of some kind, and it's only a matter of time before her luck runs out."

"We'll make sure that Ronnie stops collecting artifacts," Valerie replied.

"Is there anyone else in your family who can see or sense or even feel an artifact, Mrs. Mendes?" Mrs. Frederic questioned.

"Only my mother, but she's not a part of our lives," Valerie admitted.

"So you cannot really enforce Ronnie to stop finding and collecting artifacts if she chooses to go behind your back?" Mrs. Frederic questioned.

"No, Mrs. Frederic," Valerie admitted in a small voice. "Ronnie finds those artifacts deeply disturbing and had made it her mission to remove those artifacts from the public. So she would indeed go behind my back and continue to collect artifacts."

"Detective Mendes; Mrs. Mendes, your daughter had been acting like a warehouse agent long before any of you had learned about any of this," Mrs. Frederic began. "And, Mrs. Mendes, you admitted that she will continue to do so. So I'm offering your family better protection against those artifacts."

"Valerie, for the safety of our family, I can't see how we can afford to pass up Mrs. Fredric's offer," Shayne told her.

Valerie took a deep breath before nodding in agreement.

"Excellent," Mrs. Frederic said before putting her briefcase on the couch and opening it. "I was hoping that you two would join my team, and in an anticipation of that, I took the liberty of drafting resignation papers for your current jobs." Mrs. Frederic pulled out two pages and handed one page to Shayne and the other page to Valerie. "Please sign and date the letter at the bottom."

"I would like to read what I'm signing," Valerie replied.

"Feel free to do so, Mrs. Mendes," Mrs. Frederic replied.

Valerie and Shayne read their resignation letters and as Shayne was signing his, he asked, "Should I take this to my supervisor in the morning."

"I will make sure that both of your resignation letters get to the right people, Detective Mendes," Mrs. Frederic replied before collecting the two resignation papers. "Tonight, I would like for you and your family to pack for two to three days and tomorrow morning, I want everyone to catch the early flight to South Dakota. It boards at seven in the morning. I understand that you have another daughter besides Ronnie."

"We have three daughters and no boys," Shayne began. "Their names are Danielle—AKA Dani—, Kelly and Veronica—AKA Ronnie. Dani is our oldest, but she doesn't live with us."

Mrs. Frederic gave an understanding nod before saying, "I will have four tickets waiting for you at the airport for you two and your two younger daughters. Of course your oldest daughter is welcome to come too if she chooses, but you will have to pay her way, and then I will reimburse you for her ticket as soon as I see you at the lodge."

"Okay," Valerie and Shayne said.

"But I don't see Danielle leaving to come with us though," Shayne added.

"It's fine either way," Mrs. Frederic assured them. "It's also fine for her to come visit you."

"I was hoping that there was no rule against that," Valerie commented. "Anyway, what about our belongings and our cars?"

"Do either of you have sentimental attachments to your cars?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

Valerie and Shayne gave Mrs. Frederic an uncertain look before saying, "No."

"Do either of you have any objections with driving a car provided for you by the warehouse?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

"As long as it's not a clunker," Valerie replied.

"I assure you that any car we provide you will be less than a year old and in great shape," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Okay, then 'no,'" Valerie said. "I have no objections with driving a car provided by you."

"Excellent," Mrs. Frederic replied. "As far as your furniture, you won't need them, and as far as your personal belongings, we'll pack for you and have your belongings ship to you."

"What's the rush of us getting to South Dakota by tomorrow?" Valerie asked.

"Abigail was called away by the regents a couple of weeks ago," Mrs. Frederic began. "Artie, Pete, Myka, Steve and Claudia had been doing what they could to help manage the lodge in Abigail's absence, but they are warehouse agents; not inn keepers, so they aren't really succeeding."

"Will I be the only one working at the lodge?" Valerie asked.

"The others will help out where they can, but for the most part, you will be the only worker at the lodge," Mrs. Frederic began. "But before I scare you away, the lodge is mostly used for a boardinghouse for the warehouse agents, and visitors to the lodge are very rare."

"Okay, that sounds easy enough," Valerie replied.

"When Leena ran it, it ran like a well-oiled machine," Mrs. Fredric commented.

"Leena ran the lodge as well as doing what she did with the artifacts?" Shayne quickly asked.

"Leena had several different responsibilities that are now being shared by the warehouse agents, Detective Mendes," Mrs. Frederic replied. "And 'yes' running the lodge was one of them. Anyway, unless either one of you have any questions, my reason for being here is done."

"Just one question," Shayne began. "So we know what to tell the cab driver, what is the address to the lodge?"

"You won't need a cab, Detective Mendes," Mrs. Fredrick said. "Someone will be waiting for you and your family at the airport when your plane lands."

"Then I guess we are all set," Shayne replied.

"I will check on you sometime tomorrow at the lodge," Mrs. Frederic told them.

"We'll see you then," Shayne replied.

"Goodnight," Shayne and Valerie said.

"Goodnight," Mrs. Fredric replied. "I'll show myself out."

"Okay," Shayne and Valerie said.

As Mrs. Frederic was walking away, Valerie told Shayne, "I'll call the girls and tell them to come home."

"Okay," Shayne replied before Valerie could walk over to the phone.

Several minutes later, Eric pulled up outside Ronnie's home.

When Ronnie stared curiously out the window, as if she was looking at something disturbing, Eric asked, "What's wrong, Ronnie?"

"There are three strange men carrying boxes from my house," Ronnie replied as she continued to stare.

Eric looked towards Ronnie's house and saw no one around.

"Ronnie, there's no one carrying boxes from your house," Eric said.

"I'll see you later, Eric," Ronnie told him as she moved to open the door. "I have to warn my parents that we'll be robbed tomorrow."

"Robbed?" Eric questioned curiously. "Why do you think that?"

Ronnie stuck out only her right foot from the car before saying, "Eric, when I saw those three men, I was actually seeing a future event, and I told you before that I can get visions."

"Yes, but I thought that when a psychic gets visions, he or she would fall into a trance," Eric replied.

Ronnie gave him a curious look before saying, "Okay, I'm not sure if trance is the proper word for what happens to me. In fact, I used the word… or phrase 'waking dream.' Anyway, for me, when I get a vision of an event that will occur or had occurred within twenty-four hours of the vision, I will see the event as if it is happening now with the participants of the event appearing to me as ghosts."

"So you saw three ghosts carrying boxes from your home?" Eric questioned.

"Yes, but I guarantee you that they weren't ghosts," Ronnie began. "And since the event hadn't occurred yet, that means that it will occur within the next twenty-four hours. So I'm going to warn my parents. I'll see you later."

"Goodnight, Ronnie," Eric said as Ronnie was getting out.

"Goodnight," Ronnie echoed before closing the door and then waving.

Eric returned the wave and when he drove off, Ronnie walked towards the front door.

Ronnie entered the house and heard activity upstairs. As she was going up the steps, Shayne stepped into view at the top of the steps.

"Wow, you came home quicker than I expected," Shayne told Ronnie.

"I was already on my way home when Mom texted me to come home," Ronnie replied before reaching the top of the steps. Shayne stepped back a couple of steps to give Ronnie some room. "But before you tell me why you wanted me to come home, you should know that I had a vision outside." Before Shayne could ask, Ronnie quickly continued with, "Dad, we're going to be robbed tomorrow."

"You better tell me what you saw, Ronnie," Shayne quickly said as Valerie stepped out from her bedroom.

"I saw ghostly images of three men carrying boxes from our house," Ronnie replied.

"Yes; most likely that will happen tomorrow, but it won't be because we're being robbed," Shayne replied.

"If those men won't be robbing us, then why will those men be moving items from our home?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"Ronnie, while you were out, Agent Bering and Agent Lattimer's supervisor visited us," Shayne began. "Her name is Mrs. Frederic and she's concern about you collecting curios with active auras."

"She wants me to stop, doesn't she?" Ronnie questioned. "Well those curios need to be gathered up and sent to Warehouse 13."

"Ronnie, Mrs. Frederic has mentioned that what you are doing was very dangerous, but she also realizes that no one could stop you if you would go behind our backs and continue to collect those curios," Valerie began. "So she offered us another solution that will minimize the risk from those curios."

"Okay," Ronnie began skeptically. "What's the solution?"

"Warehouse 13 is located seven miles from Univille, South Dakota," Valerie began. "Univille needs a sheriff and there's a bed and breakfast that needs a manager."

"You two took jobs in Univille, South Dakota, so the warehouse agents could keep an eye on me?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"'Yes,' your dad and I accepted the job offers, but 'no,' it wasn't for them to keep an eye on you," Valerie quickly replied. "In fact, Mrs. Frederic wants to hire you as well."

"She wants to hire me?" Ronnie questioned curiously. "For what?"

"Mrs. Frederic made it clear to us that certain artifacts… or curios, as you call them, can negatively affect other curios," Valerie began. "Leena had used her aura sensing ability to know which curios to keep separated from one another and which curios that can be safely stored together, and Mrs. Frederic is hoping that you can perform the same task that Leena did."

"I never saw any negative affects between two curios," Ronnie replied.

"Which only means that you had gotten very lucky that you hadn't stored the wrong two artifacts together or hadn't collected an artifact that would have started a catastrophe of some kind," Shayne replied. "In any case, your mom and I can't trust you to stop collecting those artifacts, so to keep this family safe from them, we're moving to Univille, South Dakota, where the warehouse agents can protect us."

Ronnie slightly huffed—as if confused on what to do—before saying, "Working for the warehouse sounds like a great opportunity, but what about my internship with Uncle Russell, and my friends are here."

"I had already called and told Uncle Russell that you can no longer intern for him because your dad and I had accepted nice job offers in Univille, South Dakota, and he understood," Valerie replied. "As for your friends, well, you will have to keep in contact with them through social media."

"How long do we have until we move?" Ronnie asked.

"There's a flight to South Dakota that leaves at seven in the morning and Mrs. Frederic wants us on that flight," Valerie replied.

"Until seven in the morning," Ronnie quickly uttered. "Why so soon? And don't you two have to give your supervisors notice before quitting your current jobs."

"Mrs. Frederic is handling our resignations for us, and since she is now our employer, we have to listen to her when she tells us to catch the first flight out in the morning," Shayne replied.

"And since we will have to leave the house a lot earlier than seven in the morning to catch our flight, you need to go pack," Valerie added. "And pack about three days' worth of clothes."

"Fine," Ronnie replied before walking towards her room.

Once Ronnie entered her bedroom, she sat at her desk, got onto her laptop and called Chloe over Skype. After Chloe answered, Ronnie told her about her parents taking jobs in Univille, South Dakota and that they were moving to Univille in the morning.

After expressing how they will miss hanging out with one another, Ronnie—as she continued to talk to Chloe on Skype—began gathering the clothes that she wanted from her dresser.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Kelly came home several minutes after Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie had finished packing their clothes.

Valerie and Shayne were relaxing in the living room while watching TV as Ronnie was in her bedroom while talking to her friends on Skype or on Facebook.

Kelly joined her parents in the living room, and once she found out what was going on, she told her parents that she didn't want to move to Univille.

"Last week, Bruce asked me to move in with him," Kelly continued. "And I do want to, but I haven't yet because partially I'm scared to move out of here. Plus, if I had told you two and you two would tell me not to move out, most likely I would have listened. But now you two and Ronnie are moving. So …"

"Kelly, it's fine," Shayne assured her. "All and all, Bruce is a good guy and I can tell that he makes you happy."

"He does," Kelly quickly agreed.

"Then you should stay and be with him," Shayne continued. "You have my blessing."

"Do I have your blessing too, Mom?" Kelly asked.

"Of course," Valerie said, which brought a smile across Kelly's face. "But you do know what this means, don't you?"

Kelly shot Valerie a curious look before asking, "What does it mean?"

"It means that I'm going to be calling you a lot," Valerie replied.

"I think I can handle that," Kelly said with a grin.

"Good," Valerie replied.

"Anyway, where's Ronnie?" Kelly asked.

"In her room while either Skyping with her friends or talking to them on Facebook," Valerie informed.

"Is she upset that she has to leave Eric?" Kelly asked.

"Well, she wasn't thrilled about leaving her friends, but she wasn't upset about it either," Valerie replied. "And she definitely didn't seem bothered by that fact that she and Eric can no longer see each other."

"Ronnie did mention that she was already on her way home when she received the text to come home," Shayne pointed out. "So perhaps Ronnie wasn't upset with moving away from Eric because she and Eric were no longer together."

"I'll go find out," Kelly replied before walking away.

Minutes after Kelly went upstairs, Dani—with Michael at her side—visited her family to find out why her mom told her to come by.

Monday morning at 8:20 A.M., Mountain Time, in South Dakota, Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie entered the moderately crowded terminal from the passenger boarding bridge. Valerie and Shayne were readjusting their watches from Central Time to Mountain Time as they walked.

Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie wore blue jeans. Valerie wore a gray pullover shirt without a collar. Shayne wore a light blue pullover shirt with a collar and Ronnie wore her short-sleeve orange and black Webster Groves High School pullover shirt without a collar. Valerie wore tennis shoes. Shayne wore the black shoes that he normally wore to work and Ronnie wore her three-inch high-heeled black ankle boots.

Valerie and Ronnie each had their purses over their shoulders. The strap to Valerie's purse wasn't as long as Ronnie's purse, so Valerie's purse only hung on her left side while Ronnie's long-strap purse crossed Ronnie's back and chest from her left shoulder to her right hip.

Moments after Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie stepped into the terminal they were joined by Pete and Claudia.

"Agent Lattimer," Ronnie uttered before Valerie or Shayne could say anything. "Hi. Are you our ride?"

"I am. And all of you can call me Pete."

"You can call us by our given names as well," Shayne told him.

Valerie quickly and wholeheartedly agreed.

Pete nodded before introducing Claudia to them and them to Claudia. Ronnie stared at Claudia during the introductions.

Once the introductions were over, Pete pointed out, "I don't see Kelly. Did she slip past me without me seeing?"

"She stayed in Saint Louis," Valerie began. "In fact, once she found out that we were moving here, she took that opportunity to tell Shayne and me that she wanted to move in with her boyfriend."

"I guess there are worse ways to learn that your daughter wants to move in with her boyfriend," Pete commented.

Valerie gave an agreeing murmur as Shayne gestured and said, "We should have three small bags at the luggage carousel. Hopefully they didn't get lost in transit."

Pete nodded before gesturing towards the carousel and saying, "Let's go get them and get out of here. It's a long drive to the lodge."

As everyone moved towards the carousel, Claudia asked Ronnie, "You were staring at my aura earlier, weren't you?"

"I was," Ronnie replied. "The color of your resting aura is the same color as Mindy's resting aura. Mindy is one of my friends in Saint Louis."

"What exactly is a resting aura?" Claudia asked in a curious tone.

"It's the color of someone's aura when that person is void of moods and emotions," Ronnie explained. "Moods and emotions will cause the resting aura to crackle with flecks of another color, and the only time when a person is void of moods and emotions is when the person is in a dreamless sleep."

"So you can tell me my mood just by looking at me?" Claudia asked.

"Once I get to know you and learn what each shade of a color means when I look at you, I can," Ronnie said.

"So different shades of the same color could mean different things?" Pete questioned.

"Correct," Ronnie replied. "Like the color red. Flecks of red in someone's aura can mean anger, jealousy or overly passionate for something or for someone just to name a few. I will have to get to know a person to learn which shade of red means what."

"What exactly can a resting aura tell you?" Claudia asked.

"The demeanor of a person," Ronnie replied. "A person with a red resting aura can be a perfectionist, an overly jealous person, a very easy to anger person or a very possessive person within a relationship just to name a few. When I see a person with a red resting aura and that person is crackling with flecks of another shade of red, I put a wide distance between me and that person."

"I can understand that," Claudia replied. "Anyway, what's the color of my resting aura?"

"Your resting aura is cadet blue and it's crackling with flecks of green." Ronnie replied.

"Cadet blue?" Pete echoed curiously. "Do you know the shade name for each shade of blue?"

"I don't, but, as I said a minute or two ago, my friend Mindy has cadet blue aura too, and not all that long ago, I looked up shades to certain colors off the internet and compared those shades to my friends' auras," Ronnie replied.

"Okay, sure, it makes sense that you know what cadet blue is when you put it like that," Pete joked.

Ronnie amusingly grinned as Claudia asked, "So what can you tell me about my demeanor?"

"Cadet blue could mean several things, but only a few of the characteristics might apply to you," Ronnie said. "And I won't know which characteristics apply to you until I get to know you."

"Okay," Claudia replied. "What are the characteristics that are connected with cadet blue?"

"Loyalty to friends and family," Ronnie began as they approached the luggage carrousel. "Relentless in stubbornness and in determination. Imaginative, creative, trustworthy, self-conscious to new experiences, a show of bravery even though the person might be cowering inside… uh, there are more characteristics to a cadet blue resting aura, but I can't currently... oh, wait. Mindy is very sarcastic and has a very high IQ. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if a person has a cadet blue resting aura combined with a high IQ, then that person will most likely be sarcastic as well."

Pete chuckled before saying, "You had done a great job at describing Claudia."

Claudia pleasantly grinned before saying, "So what does the crackling flecks of green mean?"

As Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie went to retrieve their bags, Ronnie told Claudia, "Shades of green could mean happiness, amused, relaxed, optimistic, sympathetic, gratefulness, energetic, enthusiastic... and I'm certain that I can add more to that list, but I can't think of them."

"I'm actually satisfied with the list you gave me," Claudia replied as everyone moved away from the luggage carrousel. Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie each carried their own bag. Pete walked at Valerie's right side as Shayne walked at Valerie's left side. Ronnie and Claudia walked behind them. "So auras that are crackling green are associated with good emotions and auras that are crackling red are associated with bad… or negative emotions."

"Actually a few good emotions can make a person's aura crackle with red flecks as well," Ronnie informed. "Romantic interest towards another person can cause a person's aura to crackle with a shade of red. Enthusiastic emotions, pride and complete euphoria can appear to me as shades of green, blue or red; it just depends on the person. Also a strong passion for something or for someone can also make a person's aura crackle with a shade of red… although, I think I mentioned passion earlier."

"You did, but it's worth mentioning again," Claudia replied. Ronnie grinned for a response. "Anyway, what else can you tell me?"

"I told you as much as I can about your aura," Ronnie replied.

"What about Pete's aura?" Claudia asked.

"Pete's aura doesn't behave like other people's auras," Ronnie began. "So it might take me sometime before I can figure out his aura."

"How does his aura behave?" Claudia asked.

"His aura doesn't crackle with flecks of another color, but it is shifting colors," Ronnie replied. "Yesterday, when I first saw him, his aura was completely sky blue, but it completely shifted to deep purple when he spoke about Leena. However, now it's completely… Holy shit."

"What's wrong?" Claudia quickly asked.

"Veronica," Valerie uttered when Claudia spoke. "Language."

"Ronnie, why did you say, 'holy shit' when referring to my aura?" Pete asked.

"When we first saw each other today, I noticed that the color of your aura was almost the same color as Claudia's resting aura, but now the color of your aura is almost the same color as my mom's resting aura," Ronnie informed. "I didn't notice yesterday, but I think your aura is echoing the aura of the closest person next to you."

"Pete, could that be the reason why you can get vibes?" Claudia asked.

"That's a good question," Pete replied.

"You get vibes?" Ronnie rhetorically asked. "What does that mean?"

"Not always, but most of the time when I stepped into the vicinity of an artifact or into a situation that is not quite like it should be, I will get a nagging feeling that something isn't right," Pete replied. "And so far, I'm always right that something is not right when I get those feelings."

"I would like to see your aura during one of those times you get a vibe," Ronnie told Pete.

"It's rare, but I have had vibes at the lodge and at the warehouse in the past, so most likely you will get the chance to see my aura during one of my vibes," Pete replied. "In fact, there's a chance that I might get a vibe once we get to the lodge."

"Why's that?" Ronnie asked.

"Artie wants to see for himself if you can in fact see objects with active auras, so Artie is hiding harmless artifacts around the lodge as if they are Easter eggs," Pete replied.

"And he wants me to find them," Ronnie continued for Pete.

"Exactly," Pete replied. "And I know that Artie's test might be bit eccentric…"

"Pete, it's fine," Ronnie quickly said. "I have no problem with taking his tests."

"Okay, well, on a cheerier note, the weather today is supposed to be nice and sunny," Pete began. "Oh, and what about those Saint Louis Cards? They had been on fire the last few days."

Shayne slightly grinned before entering into the baseball conversation with Pete. Valerie began a second conversation with Ronnie and Claudia.

Pete drove, and during the long drive from the airport to the lodge, their conversation remained mostly casual; however, Pete and Claudia would think of something that Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie should know and told them once the thought popped into their heads.

One of the things that Claudia shared was the fact that everyone in Univille had been successfully convinced that every warehouse agent was in fact an IRS agent.

Once Pete had reached the lodge and turned off the engine to the SUV, everyone went to climb out.

As everyone was gathering at the back of the SUV, so Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie could grab their bags, Artie exited the lodge.

As Artie was approaching them he greeted them with, "Welcome to Univille's only bed and breakfast. My name is Arthur Nielsen, but everyone can call me Artie."

"I'm Veronica Mendes, but everyone calls me Ronnie," she said first and slightly raising her left hand. She had her bag in her right hand.

"I'm Shayne and this is my wife Valerie," Shayne said soon after Ronnie had finished.

"Nice to meet you, Artie," Valerie added.

"It's nice to meet you three," Artie replied as he curiously looked around. "Wasn't I supposed to be meeting a fourth family member as well?"

"My middle daughter Kelly," Valerie supplied with a slight grin. "She actually stayed in Saint Louis and moved in with her boyfriend."

"Okay, well, once again, welcome," Artie began. Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie nodded with a grin. "Anyway, I'm not sure if Pete has told you three or not, but I want to see what Ronnie is capable of."

"He told us," Ronnie quickly said. "You had hidden artifacts like Easter eggs inside the lodge."

"Yes," Artie replied before pulling several sets of rubber gloves from his pocket. "And for everyone's safety, I want everyone to put on a pair of gloves."

"What are the gloves supposed to protect us from?" Ronnie asked.

"They're specially coated and they will protect you from the artifacts," Artie told her.

"But those artifacts are like those curios that I collected in Saint Louis, and I didn't need gloves then," Ronnie replied.

"That's where you are wrong, Ronnie," Artie quickly told her. "Yes, you had handled those curios and nothing bad had happened to you. That was simply blind luck on your part, but trust me when I say that your luck has just run out. So from this point forward, I don't want to see you handling any artifact or curio without the proper precaution. Is that clear?"

"It's clear," Ronnie replied.

"Good," Artie said before handing Ronnie a pair of gloves.

Ronnie put down her bag, and as she put on her gloves, Artie handed Shayne and Valerie each a pair of gloves as well.

"Artie, what are these gloves coated with?" Ronnie asked.

"It's coated with the same stuff that neutralizes artifacts, and although the gloves will protect you against the artifacts, the gloves alone will not neutralize the artifacts," Artie replied as Valerie and Shayne put on their gloves. "So you will need to either bag the artifacts in a special neutralizing bag or douse them with the neutralizer."

"Got it," Ronnie replied.

"If there are no more questions, then, Ronnie, lead on and find those eggs," Artie replied.

Ronnie slightly chuckled before picking up her bag.

"Is Agent Bering inside?" Ronnie asked after taking her first step towards the entrance.

"Agent Bering will tell you to call her Myka, and Myka is at the warehouse with Steve," Artie replied as everyone followed Ronnie. "Steve is the only team member you haven't met."

"Unless you count Trailer," Claudia added.

"And we're not," Artie quickly replied.

"Who or what is Trailer?" Ronnie asked.

"He's a dog that stays at the warehouse," Artie replied.

"Oh, what kind of dog is he?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"A mutt," Artie replied.

"He's an English Shepherd," Claudia corrected.

"Is Trailer gentle?" Ronnie asked.

"He's a teddy bear," Artie replied. "And once I give you a tour of the lodge, we'll go to the warehouse and you can see for yourself how gentle Trailer is."

"Cool," Ronnie replied. "Up until six months ago, we had a dog, but we had to put him to sleep."

"He was thirteen years old and had cancer," Valerie added.

"That's a shame," Claudia said.

"It was," Ronnie agreed. "I was heartbroken."

"What breed of dog did you have?" Claudia asked.

"A Dalmatian," Ronnie was able to say before spotting her first artifact near the front door. "And I found my first Easter egg."

"So soon?" Artie questioned curiously as everyone came to a stop next to the door. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Ronnie replied before gesturing. "The mailbox's aura is dark purple—almost black—and it's very active."

"Yes, the mailbox is indeed an artifact," Artie replied. "It's been in the warehouse since 1960. There's no helpful information on its origin, but anyone who touches the mailbox without wearing protective gloves will feel intense heartbreak and will weep for at least an hour."

"My theory on the mailbox is that whoever had owned the mailbox before 1960 had gotten some heartbreaking news and cried his or her heart out at the mailbox," Claudia added.

"Currently there's no name or number on the mailbox, but there were a name and a number when the mailbox became an active artifact," Ronnie replied. "I can see where the name and number used to be in the aura."

"The agents back in the sixties had run chemical tests on the mailbox and found that the name and number on it were 'Millers, 1609.'" Artie began. "Is that what you see?"

Ronnie nodded while saying, "It is."

"Unfortunately knowing the family name and the address number don't help to locate the origin of the mailbox," Artie replied. "Anyway, let's move on. If you don't see any other artifact outside, let's go inside."

Ronnie looked around and when she saw another artifact in the south end of the yard that was free from shadows, she gestured towards it while saying, "That sundial's aura is gold and is also very active."

Except for Artie, who gave Ronnie a look of aw, everyone looked around for the sundial, but no one could spot it.

"There's no sundial, Ronnie," Shayne informed.

"Dad, it's right there," Ronnie replied.

"There's nothing there, sweetie," Shayne insisted.

"There is actually a sundial there," Artie said in Ronnie's behalf.

"Is it cloaked and only a person who can see auras can see it?" Pete asked.

"It's not cloaked and Leena couldn't see the sundial either; although she could sense it," Artie replied. "In fact, Leena had searched that yard her first two days she was here for an artifact before she learned about the sundial."

"Speaking of learning about the sundial, Artie, why can't we see it?" Claudia asked.

"Because it is out of sync with normal time." Artie replied.

"It's out of sync with normal time?" Valerie quickly questioned. "What does that mean?"

"The sundial allows one person to move ahead of actual time for one to eleven hours by readjusting the outer ring of the sundial," Artie began. "And moving ahead of time is not time-travel because the person who uses the sundial can only view the future as an observer and not interact with it. The person would then reset the outer ring of the sundial to the proper setting to return to his or her proper time."

"So how did the sundial get out of sync with time?" Claudia asked.

"It happened weeks before I joined the warehouse," Artie began. "However, I was told that Agent Andrew Thomas was going to find out how Mrs. Frederic could seemly appear and disappear at will, and so Agent Thomas setup the sundial and activated it."

"So he activated the sundial and didn't know how to shut it down?" Ronnie asked.

"No one knows why Agent Thomas failed to shut down the sundial," Artie replied. "The theory was that something had happened to Agent Thomas while observing the future. In any case, while the sundial is out of sync with time, it can't be seen by anyone, except for you, Ronnie. Ronnie, how is it that you can see the sundial when no one else can?"

Ronnie shrugged before saying, "On occasions I sometimes get visions of future and past events. Most of my visions will come to me like waking dreams with one exception."

"And what's that exception?" Claudia asked before Ronnie could continue on her own.

Ronnie took a breath before saying, "When I get a vision of an event that will occur or had occurred within twenty-four hours of my vision, I will see the vision as if it is happening now with the participants of the event appearing to me as ghosts; although the sundial looks normal to me and not ghostly."

"Yes, of course," Artie replied as he formulated a theory. "Ronnie, by you being able to see the present and a few hours of the past and a few hours of the future simultaneously is why you can see the sundial when no one else can."

"Ronnie, since you can see the sundial, perhaps you can touch it as well," Claudia suggested.

"Very unlikely," Artie replied. "However, Ronnie, I would like for you to go look closely at the sundial's face and tell me how many hours into the future that it is set too."

"The sundial won't hurt Ronnie when she steps up to it, will it?" Valerie quickly asked.

"No, no," Artie began. "Even though Ronnie is able to see the sundial, the sundial isn't physically there. So, Ronnie, please step up to the sundial and tell me how it is set."

Ronnie nodded before dropping her bag and taking the twenty steps of her normal stride towards the sundial. The others slightly followed.

Once Ronnie stepped up to it, she made a single failed attempt to touch it with a swipe of her hand.

"It's weird that I can see this sundial so clearly and not be able to touch it," Ronnie said while looking towards her group.

"What do you see, Ronnie?" Artie asked.

"It's made of metal," Ronnie began as she refocused on the sundial. "The arm of the sundial is mounted on a round disc and the outer ring has the clock numbers."

"Ronnie, how is it adjusted?" Artie asked.

Ronnie positioned herself in a certain manner before saying, "Okay, I'm standing behind the six." She pointed in front of her. "The twelve is there and the sundial's arm is pointing towards the twelve and the shadow—before I had blocked the sun—was almost on the eleven."

Artie glanced at his watch before saying, "It's almost eleven now. So if the sundial is set correctly, then why is it out of sync with our time?"

"I don't know how artifacts work or if certain conditions need to be true for them to work properly, but if this came from a place outside our current time zone, then perhaps it should be set to a specific time zone," Ronnie suggested.

"That's it," Artie uttered. "Agent Thomas set up the sundial for our local daylight savings time when he should have set it up for Apparent Solar Time."

Ronnie slightly raised her hand while saying, "For us newbies, what exactly is Apparent Solar Time?"

"The sundial should have been calibrated during the time when the sun is at its highest peak," Artie began. "That is known as Apparent Solar Noon, and Apparent Solar Noon may be just a few minutes off from12:00 P.M. local standard time; it's definitely about an hour off during daylight saving time."

"So if I'm understanding you correctly, the time now is almost 10:00 A.M. Apparent Solar Time," Ronnie summed up.

"Correct, which puts the sundial out of sync with our time by about an hour," Artie replied.

"Knowing that fact doesn't really help us to retrieve the sundial," Pete began. "Ronnie is the only one of us who can see it and none of us can touch it to readjust it."

"If we can't adjust the sundial to the sun, what about adjusting the sun to the sundial?" Ronnie questioned. "So is there anything in the warehouse that can slow down or speed up the earth rotation?"

"No, and I wouldn't use it if we did," Artie replied. "However, there might be a way to change the direction of the sun without interfering with celestial bodies."

"How?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"The same way that master illusionists do it; with curtains and mirrors," Artie replied. "Our best chance to retrieve the sundial would be at Apparent Solar Noon. Claudia, do a computer search and find out when the exact moment Apparent Solar Noon is to occur."

"On it," Claudia replied before walking towards the front door.

"Pete, we need big mirrors; lots of them and we also need something that we can use to completely partition off the sundial from the sunlight at all angles, except for the one angle we need the sunlight to be at," Artie told him.

"I'm going to get Myka and Steve to help," Pete replied before pulling out his smartphone.

"Artie, if Agent Thomas couldn't correctly sync the sundial time with normal time and became stuck in the sundial time, then he had to have died after all these years," Ronnie began. "So am I going to see his skeletal remains when I walk around the lodge?"

"I would really like to tell you 'no', but since you can see the sundial as clearly as you do, I'm afraid that you will most likely be able to see Agent Thomas's remains as well," Artie replied.

"Great," Ronnie sarcastically said.

"Ronnie, if you do come across Agent Thomas's remains inside the lodge, then just remind yourself that what you see is natural," Shayne told her.

"I'll do my best to remind myself of that," Ronnie simply replied.

"Until we can get mirrors and what we will use to partition off the sundial out here, there's nothing more that we can do," Artie told Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie. "So let me show you three around the lodge."

"Alright," Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie agreed before following Artie towards the lodge. Ronnie grabbed her bag when she came to it, and then quickly caught up to Artie and her parents.

After entering the lodge, Ronnie quickly identified all ten artifacts that Artie had placed around the reception area and the common areas on the first floor. After Ronnie had pointed out each artifact once she spotted it, Artie described what the artifact did, and although the artifacts were nonlethal, each one could have caused mayhem if not handled properly.

During the tour on the first floor, Artie had also told Valerie what her responsibilities were going to be. Ronnie was able to cook as well as Valerie could, and Valerie told Ronnie that she was going to share the cooking responsibilities. Ronnie shrugged before agreeing to share the work responsibilities at the lodge.

After Artie showed Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie everything there was to show them on the first floor, they moved onto the second floor.

Artie never placed artifacts on the second floor, so Artie allowed them to take off their gloves; however, they were to keep them accessible at all times. To ensure that they had their gloves accessible at all times they stuffed their gloves into their front pockets.

During the tour on the second floor, Valerie and Shayne put their bags in their room and Ronnie put her bag in her room. Also during the tour of the second floor, Artie allowed Ronnie to look into every room for Agent Thomas's remains and after looking into the last room, Ronnie let out a sigh of relief that Agent Thomas's remains were nowhere to be seen inside the lodge. Everyone then returned to the common room—the room where Claudia had her laptop and was learning everything she could about solar time and sundials.

At the warehouse, Myka and Steve loaded five large mirrors, a thick-walled Arabian tent and a large tank of neutralizing goo onto a truck and then drove it to the lodge.

Once Myka and Steve were at the lodge, Myka introduced Steve to Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie and them to Steve.

Once the introductions were over, Myka, Pete and Steve set up the Arabian tent around the spot where Ronnie specified.

After the Arabian tent was in place, Claudia instructed Myka, Pete and Steve on how to face the mirrors.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Everything was set up around 1:00 P.M. local daylight savings time, which was a few minutes before Apparent Solar Noon.

As everyone waited sixteen feet from the Arabian tent, their attentions were drawn to Mrs. Frederic and her chauffeur/bodyguard as they drove up in a black luxury car and parked behind the four vehicles that were already there.

After the two exited the car, the chauffeur/bodyguard remained with the car as Mrs. Frederic made her way to the group.

"What is going on here?" Mrs. Frederic asked while she was walking up.

Artie gestured towards Ronnie while saying, "Ronnie can see the sundial and she described to us how it was set. In fact, the sundial is set correctly to be shut down, but it's not shutting down because Agent Thomas had set up the sundial for our local daylight savings time when he should have set it up for Apparent Solar Time. Since we can't physically touch the sundial to reset it, we came up with a plan on redirecting the sunlight over the sundial by curtaining off the sundial and using mirrors."

"Plan B is to find an artifact that can slow down or speed up the earth's rotation," Ronnie joked.

"No," Artie quickly said. "There's no plan B. There's only plan A and if it fails, the sundial stays out of sync with normal time for eternity."

Ronnie slightly chuckled before saying, "I'm joking."

"You think it's okay to misuse artifacts or make jokes about them, Ms. Mendes?" Mrs. Frederic quickly asked in a tone as if the wrong answer would result in a swift death.

Ronnie picked up on the tone and quickly said, "No, Ma'am. I would never misuse an artifact, and I'm sorry for my inappropriate joke. I do that sometimes—make inappropriate jokes or comments, and I now know that jokes about artifacts are off-limits. Anyway, I prefer to be called either Ronnie or Veronica over Ms. Mendes."

Mrs. Frederic nodded with a hint of a grin before saying, "Ronnie, I'm Mrs. Frederic and it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Frederic," Ronnie replied.

"Ronnie, I heard all about your ability to see auras," Mrs. Frederic began. "But how are you able to see the sundial when no one else can?"

Ronnie took a breath before explaining her psychic ability.

Once Ronnie had finished her explanation, Pete added, "Ronnie's a human Durational Spectrometer."

"What's a Durational Spectrometer?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"It's a device that displays the after image of anything that has been in an area in the previous five hours," Mrs. Frederic informed. "And unlike your ghostly vision that only you can see, the Durational Spectrometer displays ghostly images for everyone to see."

"I would like to see that work and see how it compares to my visions," Ronnie replied.

"Perhaps one day you will," Mrs. Frederic said.

"Less than seventy seconds to Apparent Solar noon, everyone," Claudia announced.

"Should I stand behind the sundial and let you know if the mirror needs readjusting?" Ronnie asked.

"No," Artie quickly said. "I had been told that the sundial will scorch the ground around it by ten feet when it syncs up with time; so I want no one within sixteen feet of the tent until we know for sure that our experiment had either worked or failed.

"Which we will find out soon if this experiment works or not," Claudia said as she looked at her watch. "Less than forty seconds to Apparent Solar noon."

As the seconds slowly ticked away, everyone was quiet as he or she stared at the Arabian tent, except for Claudia.

Claudia was focused more on her watch, and once it was Apparent Solar noon, she announced, "Time."

After a brief moment of no one moving or replying or seeing anything different from the moments before, Ronnie asked, "Should someone look into the tent and see if it had worked."

"Hold on," Artie quickly requested just before the flourishing green grass at the edge of the Arabian tent quickly turned brown. "It just might take the sundial a little time to…"

"There," Myka uttered while gesturing towards the grass as it turned from brown to charcoal black. "The grass is dying beneath the tent."

Before anyone else could reply, a device from Artie's pocket sounded an alarm.

Artie quickly pulled out the device and looked at it before announcing, "A trespassing alarm went off at the warehouse."

"Jinks and I will go check it out," Pete quickly announced. "Let's go Jinks."

"Alright," Steve replied before he and Pete moved towards one of the vehicles.

"Should one of us look in the tent?" Ronnie asked. "I would, but I can see it when no one else can."

"I'll look," Myka replied as she cautiously moved towards the opening of the Arabian tent.

"Don't touch it if you see it," Artie quickly ordered. "We need to spray it with the neutralizer first."

"Right," Myka quickly agreed before taking the few steps she needed to look in. As Myka was making a thumps-up signal, she continued, "Good news. It worked. I can see the sundial."

"Good. Neutralize it so we can get it back to the warehouse," Artie told her.

"Well done, everyone," Mrs. Frederic praised as Myka moved towards the large tank of neutralizing goo. "And while Agent Bering and Claudia secure the sundial, I would like to talk with the rest of you."

"Yes," Artie replied as he gave Mrs. Frederic his full attention.

"Let's go inside where it's more comfortable," Mrs. Frederic urged as she glanced around, as if looking for something or someone.

"Alright" and "Okay" were the responses that Mrs. Frederic received before everyone moved towards the lodge.

Ronnie led the way, followed respectively by Valerie, Shayne, Mrs. Frederic and Artie.

"I don't see Kelly," Mrs. Frederic pointed out. "Is she inside?"

"Kelly stayed in Saint Louis and moved in with her boyfriend," Valerie informed.

After reaching the common room they each took a seat. Ronnie, Valerie and Shayne sat on the couch as Artie and Mrs. Fredric sat on the chairs.

"Valerie, Myka had told me about her strong hunch about you being related to Leena, and I had looked into it," Mrs. Frederic said soon after sitting down.

"My mom was adopted days after she was born, Mrs. Frederic, and I told Myka that," Valerie began. "So I hope you didn't waste too much of your time after running into that roadblock."

"As warehouse director, I have resources that most people don't have access to, so I very rarely run into roadblocks, Valerie." Mrs. Frederic began. "And I didn't run into any roadblocks this time either. Your mom and Leena's dad are half-siblings; they have the same mother."

"You learn who my mom's mom was?" Valerie asked incredulously.

"I did," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Who was she?" Valerie quickly asked.

"Her name is Florence Williams," Mrs. Frederic began. "And she resides in Detroit, Michigan with her husband Andrew Williams."

"I didn't expect her to still be living," Valerie commented. "Although, she has to be around ninety years old, so I guess it's not surprising that she's alive."

"Valerie, your grandmother is eighty years old," Mrs. Frederic informed.

"Eighty?" Valerie echoed curiously. "Are you sure you have the right woman? Because my mom is sixty-five, and for Florence to be my mom's mom, she would have to have given birth to my mom at fifteen years old."

"Your grandmother was raped and became pregnant with your mom at the age of fourteen," Mrs. Frederic began. "At the time, Florence's mother was a widow with two sons and three daughters; Florence was the oldest. So I suspect that after Florence had given birth to your mother, Florence and her mother felt that putting the baby up for adoption was the better choice at the time."

"You wouldn't know how Florence had felt about giving my mom up for adoption, would you?" Valerie asked.

"That information can't be found in my research nor have I met Florence," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Right," Valerie said. "I was just hoping that you knew and that she hated giving my mom up for adoption."

"I understand," Mrs. Frederic replied. "I do know though that Florence—while in her twenties—had three sons and another daughter. So I would like to think that Florence would have kept your mother if Florence was old enough to care for her."

Valerie nodded with an appreciative grin.

"Mrs. Frederic, was the man who raped Florence ever caught and prosecuted?" Ronnie asked.

"I don't believe so, Ronnie," Mrs. Frederic replied. "Anyway, I wanted all of you to know what I discovered."

"Mrs. Frederic, would you have any objections for me to reach out and contact Florence… my grandmother and my mother's siblings?" Valerie asked.

"Of course not," Mrs. Frederic began. "However, I believe that you should start with James Williams—Leena's father. James and I have spoken with one another on a few occasions and I'm certain that he would believe me when I tell him that you are in fact his niece. And to make things simpler, I will invite him here before I tell him about you."

"I'm okay with you doing it like that," Valerie assured Mrs. Frederic.

"Good," Mrs. Frederic replied. "Anyway, how is everyone settling in?"

"Okay" and "Good" were the responses Mrs. Frederic received.

"But right now, being here just feels more like a vacation," Valerie continued. "It might take a few days for realization to set in."

"Fair enough," Mrs. Frederic replied. "Anyway, Shayne, are you ready to meet your two deputies, and see your office?"

"I am, and I was wondering when we were going to get to that," Shayne replied.

"No time like the present," Mrs. Frederic replied while standing.

As Shayne stood, Ronnie asked, "Artie, when were you going to show me the warehouse?"

"Soon after Pete and Steve make sure that there are no intruders at the warehouse," Artie replied.

"Do you have problems with break-ins at the warehouse?" Shayne asked.

"Luckily break-ins are very rare and far between," Artie quickly said.

"I saw everyone's reaction earlier, Artie," Shayne began. "You and your agents weren't surprised that the trespassing alarm went off. In fact, they seem well verse on how to handle it."

"Before a year ago—when Leena shelved the artifacts—the trespassing alarm very rarely sounded," Artie began. "Leena had a very good record on knowing exactly where the artifacts should be shelved. I, on the other hand, have a very poor record on knowing where to shelve each artifact, and when I shelve the wrong two artifacts together, the two artifacts don't play nice with each other. In the best case scenario, the two conflicting artifacts that were shelved together will only spit static electricity towards one another, and in the worst case scenario the two artifacts will whip up a devastating tornado inside the warehouse. Either way, most of the time the conflicting artifacts will cause the alarm to sound."

"And you're hoping that I can solve the problem of putting the two wrong artifacts together," Ronnie commented.

"I am; however, I don't expect you to solve that problem overnight," Artie replied. "In fact, originally Leena's job wasn't to shelf artifacts, but after being around artifacts for several months, she picked up the ability of knowing which artifacts would act badly towards other artifacts."

"So, Shayne; shall we?" Mrs. Frederic urged.

"We shall," Shayne replied before giving Valerie a short kiss. "I'll be back at some point."

Valerie grinned before saying, "I'll be here."

Shayne nodded before moving towards the door alongside Mrs. Frederic.

"Ronnie, while you are waiting on word that it is safe to go to the warehouse, you should go upstairs and put your clothes in the drawers," Valerie suggested.

"I might as well," Ronnie replied. "I have nothing else going on."

"I'll go put away my clothes and your dad's clothes too," Valerie said as she and Ronnie moved towards the stairs.

"I'll go out and check on Myka and Claudia's progress," Artie said as he followed Mrs. Frederic and Shayne by a few steps.

It didn't take Ronnie long to put away her clothes and her laptop. Her purse was on her bed and after leaving her room, she went back downstairs to the bookshelf.

Most of the books on the bookshelves were old to fairly new fiction novels of different genre and how-to books. There were several up-to-date sets of paranormal fiction novels on the shelves as well, and Ronnie pulled out the first book to a set of books on witches and warlocks.

"I see someone else like paranormal fiction besides me," Ronnie said slightly above a whisper. She then turned and carried the book to the couch.

After Ronnie made herself comfortable, she began reading from the prologue.

Once Valerie was done putting the clothes away, she went to the kitchen with a pen and a pad of paper in her hand.

Ronnie read ten pages of the book before Artie re-entered the lodge.

When Ronnie looked up at Artie when he stepped in, Artie told her, "Pete and Steve found what had caused the alarm to sound, so I can now take you to the warehouse."

As Ronnie closed the book, she asked, "So what had caused the alarm to go off?"

"Agent Andrew Thomas had set off the alarm," Artie replied. "When the sundial returned to normal time, so did he."

Ronnie cringed before saying, "I'm glad I didn't find him."

"I'm glad of that too and I hope that you can go a long time —if not your entire life—without coming across anyone's remains," Artie replied.

"I second that," Ronnie replied as she placed the book on the coffee table.

"I speak from experience when I say it's not fun," Artie continued. "Anyway, we should find your mom and let her know that you and I are going to the warehouse."

"I think she's in the kitchen," Ronnie said before standing and moving towards the kitchen.

Artie followed Ronnie into the kitchen, and when Valerie saw them, she asked, "What have you five been eating around here, Artie? There's hardly any food here."

"Yes, well, after Abigail had gotten called away we've been ordering a lot from restaurants that delivered or driving through a drive-thru ourselves," Artie replied.

"Okay, well, I'm going to change that," Valerie announced. "Is there a car I can use so I can go grocery shopping?"

"The grocery store will actually deliver to the lodge," Artie replied. "All you have to do is call them, give them our account information and then tell them what you want."

"You five would rather order from a restaurant that delivers than having groceries delivered?" Valerie incredulously questioned.

"We wouldn't rather do that, but most of the time we are on the move and don't have the time to put together a grocery list; let alone place an order for one and be here when it arrives."

"Which was why I was brought in," Valerie concluded. Artie made an agreeing face. "Okay, where is the phone number to the grocery store and the account information that I need to give to the store personnel?"

"Over here," Artie replied as he moved towards a drawer that held the information. "The second year Leena was here, she had put together a binder with service and delivery numbers."

As Artie was pulling out an inch-wide white binder that was partially filled with papers, Valerie asked, "Does anyone have food allergies or food restrictions?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Artie replied before shutting the drawer. "However, Pete—and I as well, admittedly—would love it if you would add cookies and pastries to your grocery list."

Valerie amusingly grinned while saying, "I'll make sure I add some to my order."

Artie grinned as well before holding out the binder for Valerie to take and saying, "Anyway, here's the notebook that you'll need to order food, along with any other services that you might need."

"Thank you," Valerie said while taking the binder.

Artie nodded before saying, "Valerie, I actually stepped in to tell you that Pete and Steve had found what had caused the alarm to sound and it is safe for Ronnie to go to the warehouse. So while you order the groceries, Ronnie and I will go to the warehouse."

Valerie nodded while saying, "Okay."

"I'll see you later, Mom," Ronnie told her.

"See you later," Valerie told Ronnie.

"Come, young one," Artie told Ronnie as he began walking away.

Ronnie muffled a chuckle before following and saying, "Coming."

"And leave your purse here at the lodge," Artie quickly added. "Small items in the warehouse have a nasty habit of finding their way into carrying bags and women's purses."

"Okay," Ronnie replied in an uncertain tone as she followed Artie from the kitchen. "My purse is in my room anyway."

"Good," Artie said as he continued to walk towards the front door.

Univille City Hall, Univille Sheriff's Office and Univille Firehouse shared one large building, and once Mrs. Frederic's chauffeur/bodyguard dropped them off outside the shared government building, Mrs. Frederic led Shayne to Mayor Connie Dawson's office.

Connie was thirty-five years old and while wearing three-inch pumps, she stood 5' 6". Recently she became one of the regents and she was mildly relieved to have a sheriff who was privy to the warehouse's purpose.

Connie spoke with Shayne and Mrs. Frederic for several minutes before Connie swore Shayne in as sheriff and handed him his sheriff's badge, three sets of uniform shirts in his size, three sets of uniform pants in his size and a gun. Connie then lent Shayne a small carrying bag to put everything in.

Once Shayne had everything in the bag, Connie led Shayne through winding corridors and into the sheriff's office. Mrs. Frederic returned to her chauffeur-driven vehicle and drove away.

The sheriff's office was one large room with two moderate size prison cells, three desks and everything that could be found in a small police station; however, the three computers were five years old.

The acting sheriff—Deputy Claire Spiros—was the only one there at the moment while filling out an incident report, and she stood up when Shayne and Connie stepped in.

Claire was twenty-eight years old. She stood 5' 8" while barefooted and although she was slender, she was somewhat muscular. Her long blondish brown hair was in a French braid and her unpolished fingernails had barely extended past her finger tips.

"Deputy Spiros meet your new sheriff; Sheriff Shayne Mendes," Connie began as soon as they gathered. "Sheriff Mendes meet Univille's acting sheriff, Deputy Claire Spiros."

"Nice to meet you, Sheriff Mendes," Claire replied while offering to shake hands.

"Likewise, and you can call me Shayne," he replied while accepting the handshake offer. He gripped the carrying bag in his left hand.

"And you can call me Claire," she replied as they were ending the handshake. "Anyway, welcome to Univille, Shayne."

"Thank you," Shayne said before glancing around. "So is your partner out on patrol?"

"Toby and I hadn't had a chance to eat yet, so Toby is out getting food for us," Claire replied.

"Has it been a busy morning, Deputy Spiros?" Connie asked curiously.

"Not really, Madame Mayor," Claire began. "We were out looking for a missing nine-year-old boy. The mother thought that her ex-husband had taken him, but it turned out that Nathan—the nine-year-old boy—was at a friend's house and it took us three hours to locate him. I was in the middle of typing out the report when you two came in."

"Claire, what is a typical day like for a law enforcement officer in the town of Univille?" Shayne asked.

"Well, most days, Toby and I are mere referees for two disputing individuals or groups—whichever the case might be," Claire began. "In most cases, the two individuals or the two groups would exchange a few unpleasant words and then move on. But on rare occasions, citations were issued or arrests were made. Also, being that we are a small town, traffic violations are not as high here as you would see in other cities or towns, so we don't issue too many traffic citations either."

"What about crimes from break-ins and thefts?" Shayne asked. "Are those crimes not a problem here?"

"We do get the occasional break-ins and thefts, and we do have about five unsolved cases that had occurred over the last two years," Claire began. "But for the most part, crimes from break-ins and thefts are typically something that we don't get called too."

"So crimes from break-ins and thefts are either low here or they're not being reported," Shayne verbally concluded.

"I would like to think that it's the former," Claire replied.

"Yes," Shayne replied with a grin. "Me too. Anyway, how long have you been in law enforcement, Claire?"

"Total, slightly more than nine years," Claire began. "I became a military police officer after completing basic training at Fort Jackson, and I joined the army right out of high school. I served four years in the army and after getting out, I was hired as a police officer in my home town of Rapid City, South Dakota. I worked in Rapid City as a police officer for four years and a deputy here for two years. Since the sheriff position in Univille is an appointed position and not an elected position like in most towns, I had considered applying for the position, but then decided quickly against it."

Connie gave Claire a curious look as Shayne asked, "Why did you decide against it?"

Claire pursed her lips and glanced at Connie for only a second before saying, "This town has a reputation of bizarre activities and I wasn't up for those challenges as sheriff."

"Sheriff Mendes and I are aware of the bizarre activities that could take place in Univille," Connie assured Claire.

"Being aware of them and witnessing even just one of them firsthand are two different things, Madame Mayor," Claire began. "Four months ago, Sheriff McHale couldn't leave town fast enough when he saw whatever it was that he saw."

"You didn't see what he saw?" Shayne asked.

"I did not. My sister and her husband died in an automobile accident a week before that incident," Claire began remorsefully. "So I was actually in Rapid City and attending their funeral that day."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Shayne quickly said.

"Thank you," Claire said.

"Did your sister and brother-in-law have any kids?" Shayne asked.

"Yes," Claire began. "Fraternal twins; a girl and a boy. Their names are Jeanette and Jason. They are seventeen and they do live with me."

"My youngest daughter had recently turned seventeen," Shayne shared as Toby came through the door while carrying a carry-out bag and two drinks.

"They were out of…" the twenty-five-year-old deputy got out before weakly saying, "Cat fish." Toby had light brown hair and stood 5' 10", and as he looked between Shayne and Connie he continued to say, "Mayor Dawson. I didn't realize that you were here."

"It's quite alright, Deputy Sykes," Connie told him. "And I'm here to introduce you to your new sheriff—Sheriff Shayne Mendes. Sheriff Mendes meet Deputy Tobias Sykes."

"Nice to meet you, Sheriff Mendes," Toby said before indicating to the carry-out bag and drinks. "I would shake your hand, but my hands are full at the moment."

"It's fine, and you can call me Shayne," he replied. "And it's nice to meet you, Toby."

"Now that the introductions are done, Deputy Spiros can bring you up to speed around here, Sheriff Mendes, and I'll return to my office," Connie said.

"Have a good day, Madame Mayor," Shayne told her.

"Good day to you all," Connie said before turning and walking away.

"Good day, Madame Mayor," Claire and Toby said before Connie could leave the sheriff's office.

Connie waved without looking before leaving.

"I guess the first thing I need to do is change into my uniform," Shayne said. "So where would the facilities be?"

"Through that door," Claire said while pointing.

"Thank you," Shayne replied.

As Shayne moved towards the facilities, Toby moved towards one of the desks with the food bag and drinks.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

At Warehouse 13, Agent Thomas's body had been stored in a walk-in freezer until arrangements could be made for his funeral.

Pete and Steve were putting the five large mirrors and the thick-walled Arabian tent back where they had come from as Myka and Claudia were storing the sundial. Trailer was with Myka and Claudia.

Artie drove up to the warehouse and parked beside the two vehicles (a SUV and the large truck) that Pete, Myka, Claudia and Steve had used to get there.

As Ronnie looked towards the hangar-looking structure, she said, "I didn't know what to picture Warehouse 13 to look like, but I didn't picture Warehouse 13 to be a huge airplane hangar attached to the side of a mountain."

"The huge hangar is a façade. The actual warehouse is inside the mountain itself." Artie opened his car door and went to get out. "Come."

Ronnie got out, shut her door and then quietly followed Artie to the eye-scanner. Artie only took a few seconds at the eye-scanner, and after Ronnie followed Artie into the control room by four steps, she stopped and looked around.

Ronnie counted to six above a whisper before Artie interrupted her and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm counting the number of objects I see in this room that have active auras," Ronnie replied.

"Most of the decorations in this room are harmless artifacts… well, mostly harmless artifacts," Artie began. "I know which of them are artifacts and I know how many there are, so there is no need to count them. In fact, your job isn't to count them and once I take you inside, you won't want to count them anyway." Artie then made a hand gesture to include the room. "Anyway, welcome to the command center of the warehouse. In here, I watch over the artifacts in the warehouse and search for anomalies outside the warehouse that might have been caused by an artifact."

Artie pointed to a computer while saying, "Our computer is programmed to continuously search for anomalies as well, so I don't have to be here every second of every day, and if the computer does come across an anomaly that might have been caused by an artifact, then the computer alerts me. I refer to these alerts as pings. Most likely once you become proficient at your job, I will have you help me in here as well. Also what you see in here is what you get. You are not to upgrade, you are not to update and you are not to redecorate. Is that clear?"

"It's clear," Ronnie replied with a slight amused grin.

"Good," Artie replied before gesturing towards the door that led to the warehouse. "Now let me show you around the warehouse."

Ronnie nodded with a grin before following Artie through the door.

As soon as Ronnie stepped out onto the platform that overlooked the warehouse, she noticed the 'game in progress' chess board. She then dragged her gaze from the game board and looked out onto the warehouse.

"Whoa!" Ronnie uttered while gazing as far as she could see. "This place is humongous."

"Yes," Artie said proudly. "Welcome to what I like to call, 'the America's attic.'"

"America has a huge attic, and that subbasement below my family's house was nowhere near this huge," Ronnie replied.

"It would have grown as more and more artifacts transferred over," Artie replied. "I'm just glad that we stopped the first move attempt before it was too late to stop it."

"You think that there will be another move attempt?" Ronnie asked.

"I'm sure of it," Artie replied. "We might have stopped your family's house from becoming Warehouse 14, but the Mason Compass hasn't completely quieted down. I think the compass is looking for the next artifact or set of artifacts that it can substitute for the setting maul and square." Artie then gestured towards the steps. "Anyway, this way."

Ronnie nodded before following Artie to the steps and then descended them behind Artie.

The Bioelectric Stagecoach had been rigged to use a car battery and Artie led Ronnie to the vehicle.

Artie hopped on as soon as he reached it, but Ronnie stopped and pulled out her gloves from her front pocket.

"You won't be handling artifacts right now, so you don't need those at the moment," Artie told her.

"Alright," Ronnie replied before pocketing her gloves and hopping on.

As Artie took off down the aisle in a speed that was barely faster than a walk, he told Ronnie about some of the artifacts that they were passing.

When Artie stopped talking to take a breath, Ronnie took that chance to ask, "Does this… Six Flags car ride have another speed besides slow?"

"This car is a Bioelectric Stagecoach and it can get up to ten miles per hour, but ten miles per hour is too fast for our tour," Artie replied.

"Yes, well, with the right bike, I can travel twenty-five miles per hour," Ronnie began. "So if I would need to get around quickly at some point, do you have a problem with me using a bike?"

"We actually have a faster method to get around quickly if we need to get around quickly," Artie replied.

"What's that method?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"How do you feel about zip-lining?" Artie asked.

Ronnie gave Artie a curious look before saying, "I went zip-lining last summer and I liked it."

"Working here, most likely you will get to zip-line from time to time," Artie replied before pointing to the appropriate locations. "There's a zip-line that stretches from near the door that we came through to the opposite end of the warehouse."

"Zip-lining doesn't exactly make stops during its route," Ronnie began. "So what if I only need to get to the middle of the warehouse quickly?"

"There's a rip cord that you'll pull that will release you from the zip-line," Artie began. "So once you are relatively close to where you want to be, pull the rip cord and drop to the ground."

"Please tell me that you're joking," Ronnie quickly requested.

"Oh, I'm serious, and it's perfectly safe… mostly," Artie replied. "As long as you don't lock your knees on the landing, you'll be fine."

"Can we go back to the thought of me getting a bike?" Ronnie requested.

"Right now, your only job is to get acquainted with the warehouse and the artifacts," Artie told her. "So let's table the talk of you using a bike in the warehouse for now, okay?"

"Fine," Ronnie replied.

"Good," Artie began. "Now where was I? Oh yes, I was about to say that in this section of the warehouse, all of the artifacts were organized by Leena, so I know that there is no conflicts within this section of the warehouse."

"The color arrangement of the artifacts' auras is beautiful and relaxing to look at," Ronnie replied. "It's like a gentle flowing stream of Christmas lights."

"Okay, well, Leena did feel peaceful in this section of the warehouse," Artie replied. "Anyway…"

"Artie," Ronnie said while gesturing towards the lion bookend and the eagle bookend on the shelf that were a few feet in front of them. "Those two statues aren't artifacts. They don't have active auras."

"Those two statues are actually left and right to a pair of bookends," Artie began as he stopped the Bioelectric Stagecoach next to the shelf. "The two heads can be pulled off and exchanged, but as long as the lion head remains on the lion body and the eagle head remains on the eagle body the two bookends are dormant. Leena couldn't even sense the bookends as being alive while they're dormant, but when Pete and Myka first encountered them, they weren't dormant."

"So what happens when the eagle's head is on the lion's body and the lion's head is on the eagle's body?" Ronnie asked.

"If one of the bookends is touched by two individuals at the same time, the two individuals switch's bodies, and that isn't as cool as it sounds," Artie began. "Because eventually, the two individuals will merge into one point in time and space, and if you know your physics, you will know that two things can't occupy the same space at the same time."

"Do I want to know what will happen to the two individuals who merge into one point in time and space?" Ronnie asked.

"Probably not, but you need to know anyway," Artie replied. "If the two bookends are not put back in their dormant state in time, then the two emerging individuals will explode."

"Yep, I did not what to know," Ronnie replied.

"Anyway, moving on," Artie replied as he drove the Bioelectric Stagecoach down the aisle. "Oh, and there will be other artifacts on these shelves that will be dormant as well. Some artifacts require certain conditions to be true before they can be active while others need to be assembled to become active."

"That's good to know," Ronnie replied.

Artie gestured towards another artifact and told Ronnie about it as he drove.

Artie slowly drove down aisle after aisle for thirty minutes and told Ronnie about certain artifacts before telling her, "We are now entering areas where I had shelved artifacts without Leena. So far, all of these artifacts seem to be getting along with each other."

"Artie, you should show me what happens when two known conflicting artifacts come together," Ronnie told him. "So I can see their auras during the conflict."

"That's not a bad suggestion," Artie replied as he rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. "I think I know which two artifacts to put together that won't cause too much of an uproar."

"Which two?" Ronnie asked.

"A military saber sword from a U.S. cavalryman and a tomahawk from a Native American who were both killed in the mid1800s during one of the skirmishes between the U.S. and the Native Americans," Artie replied. "Warehouse 12 agents retrieved those two artifacts at the same time in 1867."

"What happens when those two artifacts are together?" Ronnie asked.

"As long as two people don't each hold one of the two weapons at the same time within thirty feet of each other, then the two weapons will only spit static electricity at one another," Artie began. "However, if one person holds the sword and another person holds the tomahawk, then those two people will fight to the death. Those Warehouse 12 agents learned that the hard way. If it wasn't for the third agent—an apprentice of the first two agents—knocking the weapons from their hands, the two agents would've killed each other." Artie stopped the Bioelectric Stagecoach at a cross-section and gestured down the aisle to his left. "Anyway, the tomahawk is down this aisle and we'll walk."

"Okay," Ronnie replied before she and Artie stepped out from the Bioelectric Stagecoach. "Should I put on my gloves now?"

"The tomahawk and the saber sword are artifacts that can affect you regardless if you are wearing gloves or not, but as long as we only hold one of the two weapons, the single weapon is safe to hold," Artie replied.

"Does that mean I don't need my gloves on?" Ronnie asked.

"Yes; that means that you won't need your gloves on," Artie said outright.

Ronnie—while using her left hand—subconsciously pulled out her amulet necklace from beneath her shirt and ran her fingers over it as she followed Artie down the long aisle and towards the tomahawk. Other Native American artifacts from several tribes were shelved on the same shelf as well.

Once Artie and Ronnie reached the shelf with the Native American artifacts, she read a few of their descriptions as Artie retrieved the tomahawk.

After Ronnie read the description on a Native American drum, she asked Artie, "Is this for real. This drum will hypnotically rally people into a war party for a mile?"

"I never saw the drum in action, but I have no doubts of its power," Artie replied as he stepped up to Ronnie while holding the tomahawk. "Anyway, I got what we came for." Artie gestured down the aisle. "The saber sword is that way."

As Artie and Ronnie walked towards the sword, Ronnie pointed out, "Warehouse 13 has a better Native American collection than most museums."

"When Warehouse 13 was first established, there were three to four times as many Native American artifacts than what there are now," Artie replied as he walked at a brisk pace.

"Where are they now?" Ronnie asked as she walked at Artie's side.

"They were destroyed by fire along with the warehouse and numerous of other artifacts."

"Wait," Ronnie quickly requested. "If Warehouse 13 was destroyed by fire then wouldn't this warehouse be Warehouse 14?"

"I understand why you think that, but we only change the number of the warehouse when it moves from one location to another and the warehouse never moved… well the entrance to the warehouse had moved from where it was originally placed, but the section of the warehouse that burned is actually over there," Artie replied while gesturing in a certain direction. "Luckily not all of the artifacts had been moved from Warehouse 12 when Warehouse 13 caught fire."

"What caused the fire?" Ronnie asked.

"Our best guess is that two or more artifacts were improperly stored after the move from Warehouse 12 to Warehouse 13 and they interacted badly with each other," Artie replied.

"Was any warehouse agent caught in the fire?" Ronnie sympathetically asked.

"No agents were killed, but Mrs. Frederic's sister was the original caretaker of Warehouse 13 and had died in the fire," Artie informed.

"Mrs. Frederic is in her fifties, so I'm guessing the warehouse burned down twenty to thirty years ago," Ronnie assumed aloud.

"Mrs. Frederic is much older than she looks and the warehouse burned down in 1898."

"What?" Ronnie uttered in a shock tone. "How old is...?"

"Don't look under that rock," Artie quickly said.

"But if she's as old as you imply, then how has she not had died from old age?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"She's the caretaker of the warehouse and caretakers of warehouses either don't age during their tenure or age very, very slowly," Artie informed. "Either way, Mrs. Frederic is the only one privy to the secrets of remaining young."

"Wow," Ronnie uttered in an unbelievable tone. "Sounds like I may die from old age before she will."

"Around here, we never know until it happens," Artie replied.

"So where were the other warehouses located before Warehouse 13 came to be?" Ronnie asked.

Artie took a breath before answering Ronnie. Ronnie again subconsciously ran her fingers over her amulet as she listened.

A few aisles away, Pete and Steve walked down the aisle that had the saber sword.

When Steve—while wearing his gloves—picked up the sword, he said, "My grandfather told me that his great-grandfather had used a sword just like this one."

"That's quite the letter opener," Pete told him.

"Letter opener? This beauty is for…" Steve got out before his eyes flashed red slightly. "For killing Indians."

"Oh shit," Pete uttered. He then continued cautiously, "Steve, I think it's time to put the sword down."

"Not until I kill every last heathen in these parts," Steve replied as he turned away from Pete.

A couple of aisles over, Artie sped up his pace and—while speaking in the Sioux language—uttered out, "Evil white men must die."

"Artie, speak English… or perhaps Spanish or Portuguese," Ronnie requested as she remained a stepped behind him. "And where are you going?"

When Ronnie followed Artie to the next intersecting aisles she saw Pete while pulling on Steve's upper arm and demanding, "Steve, put down the sword."

Artie and Ronnie were twenty feet from Pete and Steve, and when Ronnie saw what Steve was holding, she uttered, "Shit! You're holding the cavalryman's sword."

Pete let go of Steve's arm at the site of Artie and Ronnie while uttering, "Shit! Artie is holding a tomahawk and speaking Indian."

Myka and Claudia (with Trailer between them) stepped into the aisle several steps behind Pete as Ronnie was reaching for Artie's tomahawk-holding hand and saying, "Pete, the weapons in their hands want them to fight to the death."

Before Pete had time to process what Ronnie had said, a strong static discharge leaped the two inches from Ronnie's hand to Artie's hand.

Not only did Myka and Claudia witnessed the static discharge breaking the tomahawk's influence on Artie, but Claudia saw static sparks from Ronnie's amulet necklace for a brief moment.

Ronnie had quickly yanked her hand back at the moment of the static discharge, while uttering out as if she was in pain, "Damn. That's twice now."

Artie had turned loose of the tomahawk and as it dropped to the ground, he uttered, "What the hell?"

Steve came to a stop as well while also uttering, "What the hell?"

In a tone as if she was trying to overcome her pain, Ronnie said, "Steve was holding the cavalryman's sword, Artie."

"And I had the tomahawk," Artie finished.

"Okay, what just happened?" Steve demanded to know as Myka, Claudia and Trailer were joining them.

"The sword in your hand and that tomahawk can't be together, and if two people are holding both weapons at the same time, the two people will be compelled to fight to the death," Artie explained. "What I like to know, what it was that broke the compulsion."

"Ronnie did with her necklace," Claudia informed.

"What are you talking about?" Ronnie asked Claudia as she massaged the pain from her hand.

"Your necklace is an artifact, and it's what had caused that bolt of electricity that zapped Artie," Claudia informed as Ronnie glanced down at Trailer. Trailer was attempting to sniff Ronnie without leaving Claudia's side.

"I got zapped too, and I seriously doubt that my necklace was what had caused that static electrical jolt," Ronnie defended.

"True or false," Claudia began. "Your necklace is an artifact. And don't think about lying because Steve is a human lie detector."

"Okay, yes, my necklace does have an active aura, but I have own this necklace since I was ten, and nothing freaky has happened since I had owned it," Ronnie replied.

"That you know of," Artie quickly replied. "Ronnie, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to confiscate your necklace."

"Artie, I have own this necklace for more than six years," Ronnie replied. "If it was going to do something, wouldn't it have done it.?"

"If you have been paying attention to me since you had gotten here, you will know that anything in this warehouse could change that," Artie replied before holding out his hand. "Now give me the necklace."

Ronnie huffed slightly before moving to take off her necklace and saying, "I hope you know, Artie, that I really like this necklace."

"I will look for an identical necklace for you that isn't a potentially dangerous artifact," Artie replied before Ronnie could unclasp her necklace.

"That necklace looks very familiar," Myka announced. "Ronnie, where did you get it?"

"From a yard sale," Ronnie replied before handing Artie the necklace. "It's actually the first object I've found that had an active aura."

"You wouldn't by chance know who hosted the yard sale, would you?" Artie asked.

"I don't know her name, but my mom does," Ronnie replied. "In fact, the woman who sold me the necklace used to be my mom's fifth grade teacher."

"Rebecca St. Clair," Myka uttered before pulling out her smartphone from her back pocket. "She's who I saw wearing a necklace like Ronnie's necklace."

"When and where did you see her wearing a necklace like that?" Pete asked.

"I didn't personally witness her wearing it, but one of her former students had posted photos of her on Facebook after she died," Myka replied as she scrolled through her Facebook app. "And in a few of those photos, she was wearing the necklace that looked like Ronnie's necklace." After a few seconds, Myka continued to say, "Okay, here's a nice picture that shows Rebecca wearing the necklace."

Myka showed Ronnie the photo and after a slight hesitation, Ronnie said, "I'm not one hundred percent certain, but I think she's the woman who sold me the necklace."

"Rebecca had an artifact and sold it?" Claudia questioned as Myka closed the Facebook app.

"She must not have known that the necklace was an artifact," Myka replied before putting her phone back into her back pocket.

"If Rebecca was the one who I bought the necklace from, which I think she was the one, then it was Rebecca's aura that turned the necklace into an artifact in the first place," Ronnie informed.

"How can you possibly know that?" Claudia asked.

"Unowned objects—object that are rarely held by anyone—emit a light gray aura, and one-owner objects emit auras that are the same color of their owners' auras," Ronnie began. "If another person takes ownership of a one-owner object, then that object will shift to a two-color aura after two months, and if objects are shared or have been owned by multiple people then those objects will have multi-color auras. In fact, many shared objects and objects that had been owned by multiple people have a rainbow looking auras. Anyway, when I first bought the necklace, it had only the color of Rebecca's aura."

"Ronnie, while wearing the necklace, how often do you get a static electric shock when you pick up an artifact?" Myka asked. "And count mild static shocks."

Ronnie shrugged before saying, "My grandpa's architect drafting table and about six of those items that I had collected over the years would shock me every time I'm about an inch from them, but strong jolts like what happened between me and Artie have only happened twice. In fact, the first strong jolt was between me and my mom when Kelly, my dad and I caught my mom sleep-walking and altering those comic book blueprints. "

"That jolt woke your mom up as it did with Artie, didn't it?" Myka asked.

"It did," Ronnie replied.

"Artie, give me the necklace," Myka told him. "I want to test a theory."

"What is your theory?" Artie asked as he handed Myka the necklace.

"The person who has this necklace in his or her possession is protected from certain artifacts," Myka replied before reaching for the tomahawk.

"Myka, don't," Artie commanded. "Steve is still holding the sword."

"Yes," Myka was only able to say before a spark flew the inch-gap from the tomahawk to Myka's hand. Myka yanked her hand back quickly while uttering, "Ow. That smarts."

Myka shook her hand for a brief moment before attempting to pick up the tomahawk again. The second spark that flew was only mildly felt by Myka and after flinching slightly, Myka grabbed hold of the tomahawk and picked it up.

Steve's eyes flashed red slightly, and before Myka could say anything about her holding the tomahawk without being affected, Steve readied the sword to strike while uttering, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

Trailer immediately barked at Steve, as if trying to gain his attention.

Myka quickly dropped the tomahawk while uttering, "Steve, snap out of it! It's me! Myka."

Steve snapped out of it in time, and as he was lowering the sword, he demanded, "Okay, no one touches the tomahawk until I put the sword back."

"Please do it, so I can grab the tomahawk and put that back," Artie replied.

Trailer calmed down, and as Steve moved to put the sword back Trailer followed him.

Myka indicated to the necklace in her hand while saying, "Artie, this necklace is an artifact that keeps the person with it from being effected by other artifacts."

"Since Rebecca was the necklace's original owner, it makes sense that it was imbued to protect the wearer of the necklace from artifacts," Pete said.

"The wearer of the necklace isn't really being protected though when he or she gets a nice electrical jolt once he or she comes into contact with a powerful artifact," Claudia pointed out.

"That's most likely a side effect of anyone other than Rebecca wearing the necklace," Pete assumed aloud.

"Hey, how do you guys know Rebecca and what is she to you?" Ronnie asked.

"I was about to ask that myself," Steve replied just before putting the sword back into its proper place.

"She was a warehouse agent prior to 1965," Artie began. "In 1965, she had left the warehouse without consent, changed her last name to hide from everyone from the warehouse, moved to St. Louis and became a teacher. Of course we didn't know who she was while she was in hiding, but we got to know her just before her passing when she became involved in two of our cases."

"Rebecca must have had a strong desire to stop artifacts for that part of her to be transferred to the necklace," Ronnie surmised. "And if she felt that strongly about artifacts, then why did she go AWOL?"

"Her fiancé was also a warehouse agent, and he went missing in Saint Louis while tracking down a dangerous artifact," Myka replied as Artie bent down to pick up the tomahawk.

"She quit the warehouse to find her fiancé," Ronnie assumed aloud.

"She did," Myka replied with a slight grin.

"Did she ever find him?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"She didn't, but Pete and I did a few years ago," Myka replied. "He had been affected by the artifact that he was chasing and while he still had control over his actions, he buried himself alive so the artifact wouldn't affect others. Then a few years ago, a construction crew unburied his remains and the artifact."

"And when the artifact resurfaced, you and Pete resumed the chase," Ronnie again assumed aloud.

"Something like that," Myka said with a grin. "Anyway, Ronnie, in Saint Louis, this necklace might have protected you against the occasional mild-mannered artifacts that you had encountered, but here in the warehouse, you will come into contact with strong artifacts every day and you will get strongly zapped each and every time you do."

"Ronnie, your job is actually to take hold of strong artifacts throughout the day and put them where they can do no harm," Artie added. "So I'm still planning to put your necklace somewhere so it can't harm you or anyone else."

"Artie, now that I know what is zapping me almost every time I come into contact with an artifact, I have already decided to find another necklace to wear," Ronnie replied.

"Good," Artie replied before indicating to the tomahawk. "Anyway, did you get the chance to see the change in the tomahawk's aura when conflicting artifacts come together?"

"Oh, I see why you carried the tomahawk over here," Steve uttered as if everything suddenly made sense.

Ronnie amusingly grinned before saying, "I did see the change. It was subtle though. So if other aura changes to conflicting artifacts are just as subtle, then there might be times when I'll miss the change when it occurs."

"No matter how great Leena was at knowing where to place the artifacts, she wasn't infallible, so I don't expect you to be either," Artie said. "So just do your best, and if you do make a mistake, find out why it's a mistake and correct it."

"I can do that," Ronnie replied in a confident tone.

"And I'm confident that you can," Artie told Ronnie. "Anyway, come with me and once I put the tomahawk where it belongs, we'll finish our tour."

"Artie, I'm going to put this necklace in Rebecca's quarters," Myka informed while indicating to the necklace. "It belongs with her stuff."

Ronnie gave Myka a curious look as Artie considered it for a brief moment.

"Okay, fine," Artie finally said. "It shouldn't get into any mischief there."

"Where does Rebecca have quarters around here?" Ronnie asked Artie.

Artie motioned for Ronnie to walk, but Ronnie glanced at Trailer for a moment before she did.

As everyone went his or her respective way, Artie told Ronnie about the dead agents' quarters.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

As Ronnie's tour progressed into its second hour, Artie led Ronnie into the Feng Shui garden and—after putting on his gloves—demonstrated on how to use the Feng Shui Spiral.

The artifact that Artie used during the demonstration was the Lantern from the Courrieres Mine.

When the Feng Shui Spiral stopped on a symbol, Artie stood up and looked. He then sighed and said, "I can never get this to work properly. Steve had already categorized this lantern as seismic upheaval, but this symbol means wise pedagogue."

"The Feng Shui Spiral is reading your emotion," Ronnie replied. "Your aura is currently crackling with flecks of dark blue, and most teachers teaching a class will have auras that crackle with flecks of blue."

Artie nodded before saying, "I try to empty my thoughts and clear my mind, but I just can't seem to calm my emotion enough to get the Feng Shui Spiral to work."

"That's because your resting aura isn't calm, it's bland," Ronnie replied.

"What do you mean it's bland?" Artie quickly asked.

"Your resting aura is off-white with a very light sky-blue tint," Ronnie began. "Before you, I have only seen six people with resting auras that were off-white; however, the tints of their auras were shades of red; not blue. Anyway, three of the six were professional violinists who played classical music, one of the remaining three was proficient with the flute who played those emotional tunes that bring tears to your eyes, the fifth one was proficient with the harp who also played those emotional tunes that bring tears to your eyes and the last person was a piano teacher who loved classical music as well. You're a classical musician of some sort…"

"A pianist," Artie informed with a slight grin.

Ronnie grinned as well, as she continued to say, "You completely surrender control of your emotions to your music when you play, which is good for your music, but not so good for everyday life."

"Why isn't it good for everyday life?" Artie quickly asked.

"So far, everyone I see with an aura like yours is usually ruled by his or her emotions and less by logic or reasoning, which really isn't necessarily a bad thing; unless you're a vengeful person… which I don't believe you are a vengeful person; otherwise the tint of your off-white aura would be dark red; not light sky-blue," Ronnie replied.

"No, I don't consider myself a vengeful person," Artie replied. "Anyway, do you have insight as to why the tint of my off-white aura is blue and not red?"

Ronnie thought about it before saying, "Those other musicians I met were perfectionists; they had to have everything, especially their music, just right and people around them would suffer their wrath when things weren't just right. Now, I'm not certain what the light blue tint of your aura means at the moment, but I am certain that you're not a perfectionist."

"I grew up with a perfectionist and I swore not to become him," Artie shared.

"Your father?" Ronnie guessed.

"My father," Artie confirmed. "He's a piano teacher. Anyway, what are your uncertain thoughts of my blue tinted aura?"

"Blue auras could mean different things," Ronnie got out before having a thought. "Wait, that's your chess board back by the office, isn't it?"

"It is," Artie replied in an uncertain tone.

Ronnie grinned before saying, "Then I now believe that you already knew that you were being ruled by your emotions long before I said anything, and you took up playing chest to force yourself to think logically, and, although it's still a work in progress, it's working. You think more logical than other classical musicians and I believe that, that is why your aura has a light-blue tint to it."

Artie grinned before saying, "It wasn't verbatim, but you told me much of what Leena had told me when we first met. However, she described my aura as being untethered."

Ronnie thought for a moment before shrugging and saying, "I kind of understand why she described it as being untethered."

"So, Ronnie, would you like to see if you can make this work since I can't?" Artie asked.

"Before you give up on trying to make this work, you should try again, but instead of trying to clear your mind or calm your mind, you should put a humdrum piano tune in your head."

"I don't even know a humdrum piano tune," Artie replied.

"Okay, um, then as you try again, imagine the first thing you would have me do on the piano if you would teach me how to play the piano, and I know absolutely nothing about playing the piano," Ronnie replied.

Artie shrugged before saying, "It's worth a shot."

Artie retook the seat and closed his eyes. Within seconds, the Feng Shui Spiral began again and then stopping several seconds later.

Artie stood, and when he looked at what the indicator had landed on, he said, "I'll be damned. It worked. It stopped on 'seismic upheaval.' How did you know that that would work?"

"I didn't really," Ronnie replied. "To me it appears that the Feng Shui Spiral is measuring the difference between the resting aura and what I like to call 'the emotional crackles', and since you have a bland aura…"

"Can we use the term 'untethered' to describe my aura, please?" Artie requested.

"Fine," Ronnie began. "Since you have an untethered aura, I figured that you needed to untether your emotions, and although calm doesn't sound like an emotion, it's actually a tethered emotion. Well, all emotions are actually tethered really, but the emotion 'indifference' comes the closest as being untethered."

Artie thought for a moment before saying, "Steve is a calm person and so was Leena, so it makes sense now that they were able to get the Feng Shui Spiral to work properly by meditating and calming their minds. Anyway, Ronnie, I would like for you to do this now."

"Okay," Ronnie replied with a slight shrug before pulling out her gloves from her front pocket.

"Excellent," Artie replied as Ronnie was putting on her first glove. "You didn't forget to put on your gloves."

Ronnie slightly grinned before saying, "I know now how dangerous the artifacts can be. So I'm not taking any chances."

"Good," Artie replied. "Oh, and I'm going to give you something else to categorize."

"Okay," Ronnie simply replied.

Artie moved off the circle by a few feet and picked up a wood carving of a cat.

When Artie returned, he handed it to Ronnie and said, "I already know what this will be categorized as, but I would like to see if you can do it."

Ronnie nodded before asking, "Is this cat dangerous?"

"Very," Artie replied.

"This doesn't come to life, does it?" Ronnie jokingly asked.

"If it's not handled properly, you might perceive it coming to life," Artie replied.

"What do you mean?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"Simon Fletcher, the person who carved the cat, suffers from psychosis and has a severe fear of cats," Artie began. "Simon sees cats everywhere even when there are no cats. So in an effort to overcome his fear, he carves out cats from wood, and after several years of carving out cats, not only did he get good at carving out cats from wood, he had also imbued his psychotic fear into each of his cats."

"I don't have a fear of cats," Ronnie replied.

"The cat carvings make you hallucinate what you fear the most," Artie replied. "So you will have to fear cats to hallucinate about cats." When Ronnie looked confused, Artie continued, "What?"

Ronnie shook her head before saying, "There are a few things and situations that will cause me to balk, but I don't know if I have an actual phobia."

"Yes, well, today isn't the day to find out," Artie replied. "So don't handle this cat or Simon's other cats without gloves."

"I wasn't planning to," Ronnie assured Artie.

"Good," Artie replied. "Anyway, take your spot on the chair."

As Ronnie moved towards the chair, she asked, "So how many cats did Simon carve?"

"We don't know the exact number, but we have twenty-five of them, and that's even counting the one that you're holding," Artie began. "We even have a special section for them; however, Claudia had gotten that particular one from EBay a few days ago."

"This cat is definitely an artifact, but how did Claudia know that it was an artifact while being listed on EBay?" Ronnie asked while standing next to the chair.

Artie took a breath before saying, "Simon signs his work by etching a club symbol at the bottom of the cat's front-right paw, a spade symbol at the bottom of the cat's front-left paw, a diamond symbol at the bottom of the cat's rear-right paw, and a heart symbol at the bottom of the cat's rear-left paw. And so far, we found that he had done this with all of his cats."

Ronnie looked at the symbols before saying, "I guess it makes tracking down artistic artifacts easy when the artists sign their work."

"Especially when their signature is unusual like it is in Simon's work," Artie replied.

"So how long ago did Simon began carving cats?" Ronnie asked.

"He started in the late eighties when he was in his early twenties and he's still carving his cats today," Artie replied.

"I'm surprise you don't try to stop Simon from creating more artifacts," Ronnie replied.

Artie shrugged before saying, "It's a good therapy for Simon to carve the cats; plus Simon doesn't know this, but for the past eight years, he had been selling his cats for fifty dollars per cat directly to us. We don't have them all though. Before Mrs. Frederic and I learned about Simon, Simon had sold a lot of his cats to the public. So we have no clue on how many cats are among unsuspecting people. Anyway, let's see if you can categorize the cat."

"Alright," Ronnie replied before taking her seat within the circle.

Ronnie cleared her mind as best as she could, and within seconds the Feng Shui Spiral began to do its thing and then stopped on one of the symbols seconds later.

"Excellent," Artie replied before Ronnie could join him near the symbol.

"What does it say?" Ronnie asked.

"Ghastly affliction," Artie replied. "You would think that artifacts that cause diseases would fall under 'ghastly affliction' as well or instead of, but they don't. Here, with the Feng Shui Spiral, the word 'ghastly' is defined by the obsolete dictionary meaning, 'filled with fear', so most artifacts that cause fear or cause a person's phobia to emerge will normally be categorized as 'ghastly affliction'."

"What are the artifacts that cause diseases categorized as?" Ronnie asked.

"There's a symbol over there that means pestilence," Artie replied as he pointed to it. "Anyway, once an artifact had been categorized, you are to put the artifact on the shelf next to the other artifacts of its kind."

"Do you have a legend that can tell me what the symbols mean and what shelf holds what artifact?" Ronnie asked.

"The legend is in the warehouse manual, and I'll get you the volume that has the legend in it," Artie replied. "In fact, I had planned to give you a few volumes of the manual anyway, and I want you to read them."

"Will you be giving me tests on what I read?" Ronnie asked.

"Putting artifacts where they won't blow up the warehouse will be your daily test, and the answers on how to do that is in the manual," Artie replied. "So I highly advise that you read it."

"I will," Ronnie assured him.

Artie nodded before saying, "Anyway, since you have properly categorized the cat, it's time to put it with the others. So follow me."

Ronnie nodded and when Artie walked away, she followed while carrying the cat.

Artie led Ronnie down several aisles before reaching the aisle where Simon Fletcher's cats were setting.

"Artie, three of the artifacts in this section are very active," Ronnie pointed out as she looked over the artifacts. "As active as my grandpa's architect drafting table was before Pete neutralized it."

"Is it the brown teddy bear, that large crucifix and the blue blanket?" Artie questioned.

"Yes," Ronnie replied. "So I guess it's normal for them to be like that."

"Yes and no," Artie replied with an uncertain body language.

"Yes and no?" Ronnie echoed curiously.

"There are several artifacts in the warehouse that need extra attending to from time to time to keep them quiet, and the teddy bear, the crucifix and the blanket are three of them. The entire list is listed in the manual, along with describing on how to handle the artifacts so they don't act up." Artie gestured towards the shelf that held Simon Fletcher's other cats as he continued to say, "Anyway, go ahead and put the cat among the others and I'll take care of the teddy bear, the crucifix and the blanket."

Ronnie nodded before moving to put the cat among the others.

Artie moved to a nearby neutralizing station and grabbed a spray bottle full of neutralizer.

Once Artie returned with the spray bottle, Ronnie watched closely as Artie sprayed the teddy bear with a fine mist. Static discharged crackled harshly, but diminished after a few seconds.

"Nighty-night, Mr. Snuggles," Artie told the teddy bear as the static discharge diminished to nothing.

"What does Mr. Snuggles do?" Ronnie asked.

"Mr. Snuggles can make a person hallucinate and dream about monsters," Artie began as he moved onto the blue blanket. "This blanket is imbued with the same ability and the crucifix is imbued with the ability to make people see fiery hell demons."

Artie sprayed the blanket with a fine mist, and like the teddy bear, the blanket crackled harshly with static discharge. Also like the teddy bear, the crackles of the static discharge diminished to nothing after a few seconds.

"Was it children who imbued the teddy bear, the blanket and the crucifix with their fear?" Ronnie asked as the static discharge diminished to nothing.

"It was children who imbued the teddy bear and the blanket, but it was a nun's fear that imbued the crucifix," Artie replied as he moved onto the crucifix. "The nun had also suffered from psychosis."

As Artie sprayed the crucifix with a fine mist, Ronnie looked over the other artifacts within the area.

The group of artifacts that caught Ronnie's attention over the others was a collection of thirty old radios and a collection of fifty old car radios.

"Do all of these radios cause fear?" Ronnie asked before reading the placard associated to the radios.

"Yes," Artie replied as the static discharge of the crucifix diminished to nothing. "They were each imbued with the ability to strike fear in people on the same day of October 30th, 1938 during Orson Welles's radio show 'War of the Worlds.'"

"How did a radio show cause these radios to be imbued with the ability to strike fear in people?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"Orson Welles's show was a series of fictional cut-in news reports of a Martian invasion," Artie began as he stepped up to Ronnie. "Of course he had introduced the show as a radio play at the very beginning of his broadcast, but most of his listeners had tuned in after his introduction so most people didn't hear that it was merely a radio play. Fear and panic struck the audience. Highways became jammed pack with people trying to escape the invading Martians, and that widespread panic had imbued all of those radios."

"Wow," Ronnie let out. "So do these radios make a person see things associated to his or her phobia or do they make you see something specific?"

"Most of those alien abduction reports from 1938 to 1955 were hallucinations that were caused by these radios," Artie began. "So these radios will cause you to see space aliens."

"I thought people who were abducted by space aliens would suffer from memory loss," Ronnie pointed out.

"Yes, well, those memory losses were actually caused by the warehouse 13 agents as they were retrieving the radios," Artie informed. "The artifact that was used to wipe a person's short term memory was then destroyed in the late nineties."

"Good, I'm actually glad that that artifact was destroyed," Ronnie replied.

"There were others too who were glad; me included," Artie replied before gesturing. "Anyway, let's move on."

Ronnie nodded before she and Artie continued the tour.

In Univille, Claire had been showing Shayne around town and introducing him to some of the shop owners. Claire was the one driving the sheriff SUV, and once the fuel gage dropped to a quarter of a tank, she stopped for gas.

"I'll pump the gas," Shayne volunteered.

"I'll let you," Claire replied before handing him the purchasing card that was used for gassing up police vehicles. "And while you're doing that, I need to satisfy my chocolate craving."

"Alright," Shayne said in an amused tone before he and Claire stepped out of the SUV.

When Carmelita Montana—the fifty-one year old cashier to the gas station—saw Shayne on the security monitor, she pursed her lips and looked slightly bothered by his presence.

Carmelita was 5' 2 and had long salt and pepper hair. The jewelry she wore was a necklace, a pair of earrings and a wedding band.

"Good afternoon, Carmelita," Claire greeted as she stepped through the door.

Carmelita pulled her attention away from staring at the security monitor and onto Claire before echoing, "Good afternoon," She then gestured towards Shayne as she continued, "Hey, who's that man at the pumps?"

"He's our new sheriff," Claire replied as she stepped up to the counter and eyeing the candy bar selection. "His name is Shayne Mendes."

"Wow, Shayne," Carmelita said under her breath. "You certainly grew up to look like Dad."

Claire had heard Carmelita and looked up from the candy selection before asking, "Shayne favors your dad?"

Carmelita pursed her lips before saying, "You have good hearing, Claire. I didn't think I said it that loud."

"There's nothing wrong with my hearing," Claire replied. "Anyway, if Shayne looks like your dad, then perhaps you two are related."

"Oh, ah, we're definitely related," Carmelita replied. "Shayne's my younger brother."

"Oh," Claire let out in a surprised tone. "Shayne never said anything about being related to you."

"That's because Shayne doesn't know that I'm here," Carmelita began. "In fact, he was fifteen the last time we had seen each other. I left my family… and my hometown of Carlsbad, New Mexico, and moved to El Paso, Texas, with my boyfriend when I was twenty. My boyfriend was killed by a drug dealer five years later, and I tried to return home, but by that time, they had moved and the owners to the house at the time didn't know where."

Claire gestured towards Shayne while asking, "Should I holler for him to come in?"

Carmelita pursed her lips for a moment before saying, "Since he's the new sheriff in town, he and I are destine to run into each other at some point. So I might as well get our family reunion out of the way now. So sure; you should have him come in."

Claire nodded before turning towards the door and walking away.

Outside, Shayne had the fueling nozzle set to pump gas without hands-on, and once Claire stepped out, she hollered, "Shayne! You are going to want to come inside."

Shayne stared curiously at Claire just long enough to be noticed before stopping the gas flow from the pump and abandoning the sheriff vehicle.

"What's the situation?" Shayne asked as he was approaching Claire. His right hand was near his pistol.

"There's no situation," Claire assured Shayne. "I'm calling you in as Shayne Mendes and not as Sheriff Mendes."

"Okay, I don't understand why you are making that distinction," Shayne replied in a puzzled tone as he stopped walking next to Claire.

"You will know why soon enough," Claire replied.

Shayne stared curiously at Claire for a moment before breaking the stare and continuing into the store.

Claire followed Shayne in, and as he watched Carmelita as she moved closer, he told Claire, "Okay, I'm inside. Now what?"

"You don't recognize me," Carmelita pointed out. "I can tell."

Shayne studied Carmelita's features for a moment before saying, "You kind of favor my cousin Angela—my dad's brother's daughter—but other than that…"

"Yes, people had always thought that Angela and I were sisters," Carmelita said with a weak grin.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Shayne questioned bluntly.

"Shayne, it's me. Carmelita. Your sister," she informed.

"Okay, I don't know who you are, but my sister died twenty-nine years ago," Shayne informed.

"You thought I was dead," Carmelita replied, shocked by the news.

"My sister is dead. You? I have no idea who you are," Shayne quickly replied.

"I don't know why you thought I was dead, but…" Carmelita was only able to get out.

"My sister's remains and her boyfriend's remains were found in a burnt out building in Denver, Colorado," Shayne informed.

"I don't know whose remains were found in Denver, but it wasn't mine or Lucas's," Carmelita replied.

"I don't know where you got your information, but you were misinformed," Shayne began as if he finally found holes in her claim. "My sister's boyfriend's name was Eddie."

"Eddie?" Carmelita replied as she searched her memories. It then finally dawned on Carmelita and she continued to say, "Oh. You're talking about Eddie Hendrix. Shayne, Eddie and I were never dating. I was dating Lucas Clearwater."

"My sister was dating Eddie, and I know this because I had walked in on them during one of their make-out sessions," Shayne replied.

Carmelita thought for a moment before saying, "Okay, Eddie did kiss me days before Lucas and I left for El Paso. I didn't know that you had seen that though. And you must have walked away soon as you saw it, because if you would have stuck around, you would have seen me shoving Eddie back and threatening to kick him in his manhood if he would ever kiss me again."

When Shayne gave Carmelita a look as if he was no longer certain on what to believe, she continued to say, "Shayne, I'm your sister. I'm Carmelita. You have my consent to compare my DNA with yours if you need scientific proof."

"If you are Carmelita, then who in hell did Mom and Dad bury?" Shayne questioned.

"I just know who they didn't bury and it wasn't me," Carmelita replied. "Why did Mom and Dad think that the remains were my remains?"

Shayne thought for a moment before saying, "The jewelry; your jewelry was found on the female remains."

"I sold all of my jewelry to Peyton the day Lucas and I left," Carmelita replied.

"Peyton is still alive and six inches taller than you, so it wasn't Peyton's remains that were found after the fire," Shayne replied. "Whoa! Wait. Back before you ran away, there was an eighteen-year-old girl about your height living with Peyton."

"Okay, one, I was twenty years old, so I didn't run away; I left home," Carmelita clarified. "And two, the girl who was staying with Peyton was Lucy Flores. She had just aged out of foster care weeks before I left home, and if I remember correctly, she had a crush on Eddie."

"So if Eddie and Lucy had gotten together, and if Lucy had gotten your jewelry from Peyton, then Lucy might have been the girl who died in the fire," Shayne summed up.

"Lucy had no one to miss her, so most likely there wouldn't have been a missing person's report on her," Carmelita added.

"Crap," Shayne replied as he choked back his slight emotions. "Mom and Dad had identified the wrong woman as being you. For twenty-nine years we thought that you were dead."

Carmelita pursed her lips for a moment before saying, "I returned home once, but the family had moved and the owners of the house didn't know where the family had move to."

"We moved a year after we thought we had buried you," Shayne began. "Mom had to get away from Carlsbad, so she, Dad and David moved to Albuquerque. Of course I moved with them as well, but I was accepted into Saint Louis University, so I was only in Albuquerque for about a month before I moved into the dorms at Saint Louis University. I met my wife in Saint Louis, so I never moved back to Albuquerque after I graduated."

"Are Mom, Dad and David still in Albuquerque?" Carmelita asked.

"They are," Shayne replied. "And they're healthy and doing well."

"That's good," Carmelita replied. "I would love to go see them, but I don't know when I can find the time to go visit them."

"Oh, you won't have to worry about finding the time to go see them," Shayne assured Carmelita. "I will be calling them very soon and once they hear what I have to say, I'm very certain that they will be in Univille as fast as humanly possible."

Carmelita pleasantly grinned before saying, "Even if they could get a flight right away to South Dakota, it will take them a few hours to get here, and my shift ends in a few hours as well. So you and I should exchange contact information."

"Of course," Shayne began. "My family and I had moved into the bed and breakfast lodging house and…"

"Wait, you moved into Leena's Bed and Breakfast?" Carmelita asked.

"Yes, and starting today, my wife is now the proprietor of the lodge," Shayne replied.

"I thought another person had taken over as proprietor a few months ago," Carmelita replied.

"Abigail Cho did," Claire began. "Shayne, did something happen to Abigail?"

"Abigail returned to her chosen profession," Shayne replied.

"What is her chosen profession?" Claire asked.

"She is a psychotherapist," Shayne replied. "Oh, and uh, since the two of you knew Leena, I should tell you two that my wife Valerie is actually Leena's cousin, and although Valerie is several years older than Leena, Valerie looks very much like Leena."

"Leena had the ability to sense things about other people," Carmelita began. "Does your wife sense things as well?"

"My wife can't, but my daughter Veronica can," Shayne replied. "Once you and Veronica meet, she'll be able to tell you things about you that Veronica was never told about."

"So how old is your daughter?" Carmelita quickly asked.

"Veronica had recently turned seventeen and she's my youngest of three daughters," Shayne began. "Danielle's my oldest. She's twenty-three and she had remained in Saint Louis with her fiancé. Kelly is my second oldest. She's twenty, and she had remained in Saint Louis with her boyfriend. Anyway, we should finish this discussion when Claire and I are not supposed to be patrolling the town, but before Claire and I do get back out on patrol, you and I should exchange numbers."

"Yes, we should," Carmelita agreed before grabbing a scrap piece of paper and a pen and began writing down her name, address and phone number.

Once Carmelita had everything written down, she gave the paper to Shayne.

The bottom of the paper still had room to write on, so Shayne ripped it off and wrote out his contact information and handed it to Carmelita.

As Carmelita was pocketing the paper, she said, "When my shift ends, Shayne, I would very much like to come to the lodge to continue catching up and meet your wife and daughter."

"Sounds great," Shayne replied. "And your husband and kids can come as well… if you are married and have kids that is."

"Yes, I'm married and I have one daughter who's turning twenty-nine next week and two sons who are twenty-six and twenty-four," Carmelita informed. "My kids don't live in Univille though, but they do live in Featherhead, which isn't all that far away. I'll call them and see if they are free to come up."

"Sounds good," Shayne replied. "Anyway, Claire and I really need to get back on patrol."

"And we will right after I pay for this," Claire said as she chose a candy bar.

Shayne slightly chuckled as Claire pulled out her money from her front pocket.

Once Claire had paid for the candy bar, she and Shayne exchanged 'see you later' pleasantries with Carmelita and left the station.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Outside, Shayne finished pumping the gas before joining Claire in the SUV. Once Shayne was comfortable in his seat, he pulled out his smartphone and called his dad.

"Not a good time, Shayne," Miguel—Shayne's dad—answered with.

"This is very, very important, Dad," Shayne quickly told him. Claire pulled away from the pumps. "So whatever you're doing right now, you need to hit pause for a moment."

Miguel sighed for a moment before saying, "I can't hit pause at the moment, but I'll call you back in about thirty minutes."

"Okay, but," Shayne got out before noticing that the call had already been terminated. Shayne went to put his phone away. "He hung up on me, and I bet he's doing something that should be done by someone half his age. He needs to retire before he hurts himself."

"What does you dad do?" Claire asked as she waited at the edge of the lot for a car to pass.

"He and my brother David own and operate a construction company," Shayne replied. "My dad is seventy-two and according to David, my dad tries to work as if he's a young man."

"My grandpa—my mom's dad—is the same way," Claire began before pulling out of the lot and into traffic. "He's a woodcraftsman and he still going strong at seventy-eight. So I guess, if your dad is in good shape and is able to do the work, then I say more power to him."

"My mom has the same attitude as you do about my dad working," Shayne replied. "However, his father and his father's father died of heart attacks before the age of seventy-five."

"I see your concerns, Shayne, but it's really up to your dad on how he lives," Claire said.

"Yes, which is another reason why I'm not living in Albuquerque," Shayne said. "If I would have to watch him work every day, I would most likely be nagging him to retire."

"You know, working might be what is keeping your dad feeling young," Claire pointed out. "More often than not, people die soon after retiring."

"I've been made aware of that fact too," Shayne replied. "Still, I would feel a lot better if my dad would stop acting as if he's in his thirties."

"Once you reach your seventies, Shayne, you might feel energetic as your father," Claire pointed out. "I sure hope I'm energetic when I'm in my seventies."

Shayne let out an agreeing murmur, but before he could reply, Toby's voice over the radio said, "Claire, come in. Over."

Claire grabbed the receiver to the radio and replied, "Go ahead. Over."

"Sylvia Crawley had called," Toby began in a humdrum tone. "She told me to tell you that he's back. Over."

"Okay, I'll take care of it. Out," Claire replied before putting the receiver back and turning on the lights without the siren.

"Who's Sylvia Crawley and who's back?" Shayne asked as Claire slowed down at the approaching intersection.

"It would be easier to bring you up to speed by first telling you who's back," Claire began as she turned right at the intersection. "And who's back is Dustin Webster. He is eighty-five years old and he suffers from Alzheimer. Six months ago, Sylvia Crawley's current home was Dustin's home and he had lived there with his fifty-nine-year-old daughter, Chelsea Simmons. However, six months ago, Chelsea died from complications from a surgical procedure and Dustin had to move in with his grandson, William Webster II; AKA Willie. Willie is a decent person, but he seems not to be keeping a great eye on his grandfather. Today is the fourth time that Dustin had showed up at Sylvia's door since she and her two young daughters moved in, five months ago."

"Perhaps it's time for Dustin to be placed in a nursing home," Shayne suggested.

"I brought up that suggestion last time and I'm going to bring it up again once Dustin is back with Willie," Claire replied.

"Perhaps we need to do more than suggest it," Shayne replied.

"You mean contact social service?" Claire questioned.

"You will have to at some point if this keeps up; otherwise, Dustin or someone else could get hurt, and if you don't want to make that call, I can do it," Shayne replied.

"Before you or I make that call, let me talk to Willie one last time," Claire requested. "I'll make sure that he knows that Dustin cannot show up at Sylvia's door again."

"Alright," Shayne replied. "But if this happens a fifth time, I'm making that call."

"Okay, thanks for allowing me to take care of this this time," Claire told him.

"No problem," Shayne replied. "Anyway, how far does Willie live from Sylvia?"

"About a quarter of a mile," Claire replied. "So it wouldn't take long for Dustin to get to Sylvia's house once Dustin is out."

"And Sylvia only lives there with just her two daughters? No husband or boyfriend?" Shayne asked.

"The husband is currently serving a tour in Afghanistan," Claire began. "So it's just Sylvia and her two daughters. Her daughters are cute as a button and if I remember right, they are five and seven."

At Sylvia's house, Willie (a forty-year-old Caucasian man) had gotten to Sylvia's house before Shayne and Claire, and as Willie was attempting to guide Dustin to his blue Ford Taurus, Claire pulled into the driveway behind the Taurus. Sylvia (a twenty-seven –year-old Caucasian woman) stood in her doorway and was watching.

"I have this, Sheriff Spiros," Willie said while waving. Claire ignored Willie and put the SUV into park and turned off the engine. As Shayne and Claire were getting out of their SUV, Willie continued to say, "Sheriff Spiros, everything is taken care of. I got this."

"Mr. Webster, I'm not the sheriff, and I'm no longer the acting sheriff," Claire began. "So my correct title is Deputy Spiros. The man coming around on my right is our new sheriff, Sheriff Mendes, and I can't allow you to leave with your grandfather until after you and I discuss this ongoing problem."

"Inconvenience 'yes', but this is hardly a problem, Deputy Spiros," Willie replied as Shayne and Claire approached him and Dustin.

"The first two times when Dustin showed up here were inconveniences, Mr. Webster," Claire began as she and Shayne joined Willie and Dustin. Dustin mumbled out incoherently while looking between Shayne and Claire. "The third time when he showed up here was an issue—which I should have stated that fact out then, so I apologize for not making that clear. And now here we are again for the fourth time. Mr. Webster, have you given anymore consideration about putting your grandfather in a nursing facility?"

"I'm not going to do that, Deputy Spiros," Willie insisted.

"Then, Mr. Webster, you will have to keep a better eye on your grandfather because this can't happen a fifth time, and if it does, I will have to contact social services," Claire informed.

"Fine," Willie was only able to get out.

"Why can't you officers understand," Dustin spouted out.

"It's fine, Grandpa…" Willie was again only able to get out.

"Grandpa?" Dustin echoed as if he had been insulted. "You're not exactly a young man either, Zack, and these officers are harassing us. We don't know where Alice Cooper, Renee Busch and Carol Gerard are."

As Claire stared curiously at Dustin, Willie replied, "I'm not Zack, Grandpa; I'm Willie—your grandson—and you mentioned Alice Cooper, Renee Busch and Carol Gerard the last time when Deputy Spiros was called here. Who are those three women, Grandpa?"

Dustin stared expressionlessly at Willie for a moment before turning towards the house and saying, "It's been a long day. I need a nap."

Before Dustin could step away, Willie grabbed his arm and said, "This isn't our home, Grandpa. Get in the car and I'll take you home."

"What's wrong with you, Zack?" Dustin asked Willie. "Bernadette and I had lived here for twenty years."

"I'm not your brother Zack. I'm your grandson, Willie," he replied while patting his chest.

"Mr. Webster, take your grandfather home," Claire told him. "And keep in mind that if your grandfather shows up here again, I will have to get social services involve."

Willie pursed his lips and nodded before coaxing and guiding Dustin into his car.

Shayne and Claire returned to their SUV and got in as Willie was getting into his car.

As Claire started the SUV, she told Shayne, "I failed to look up Alice Cooper, Renee Busch and Carol Gerard the first time Dustin had mentioned them." Claire backed up to unblock Willie's car. "I thought what he was saying where just ramblings of a person with dementia, but now, I think I better see what I can find out about them."

As Claire came to a stop on the street, Shayne told her, "Once we leave here, you and I can do that back at the station."

Claire nodded before putting the SUV into park and saying, "I want to talk with Sylvia for a moment before we go."

"Alright," Shayne replied.

Willie backed up slightly and stopped when he saw that Shayne and Claire were getting out of the SUV. Claire and Shayne saw Willie as he rolled down his window and stepped over to the driver's door.

"Was there anything else, Mr. Webster?" Claire asked.

"I was just about to ask you that, Deputy Spiros," Willie replied. "I expected for you to drive off, but you two stopped and got out again."

"You're free to go, Mr. Webster," Claire said before indicating towards Sylvia. "Sheriff Mendes and I are going to speak with Ms. Crawley before we leave."

"You know, there was no need for her to contact the sheriff's office," Willie commented while looking between Shayne and Claire.

"And there is no need for her and her two young daughters to be troubled by a lost and confused elderly man showing up at her door every few weeks," Claire countered. "And with that said, take your grandfather home."

"Fine," Willie replied before continuing to back out of the drive way.

As Willie drove off, Shayne and Claire continued towards Sylvia. Sylvia stepped out into the yard as they stepped up.

"I heard what you told Mr. Webster, Deputy Spiros; about how this situation cannot happen a fifth time," Sylvia said before Claire could begin.

Claire nodded before saying, "Yes, hopefully Mr. Webster will keep a better eye on his grandfather from here on out. Anyway, Ms. Crawley, meet Univille's new sheriff. Sheriff Mendes."

"It's nice meeting you, Sheriff Mendes," Sylvia replied.

"Nice meeting you, Ms. Crawley," Shayne replied.

Before anything else could be said, a young girl's voice hollered, "Mom! Joy's being mean."

"Thanks for coming and handling things as you did, Deputy Spiros; Sheriff Mendes, but I need to go referee my two daughters," Sylvia said while gesturing.

"Of course," Shayne replied in an amused grin. "Don't hesitate to call us if this happens again, Ms. Crawley."

"Mom," Sylvia's five-year-old hollered as she exited the house. "Joy's being mean."

"Bye," Sylvia told Shayne and Claire with a wave just before turning toward her daughter. "Trina, I told you not to come outside right now."

Shayne and Claire turned and walked away as Trina uttered, "Well, Joy's being mean."

"I remember those days when one of my daughters would come to my wife or me and say that one of her sisters was being mean to her," Shayne shared.

Claire lightly chuckled before saying, "I actually remember going to my mom and telling on my sister. I was five and Delphina—my sister—was sixteen. She had been dating her husband then and had wanted to spend time with him without me tagging along. Of course I wasn't old enough yet to understand why Delphina didn't want me tagging along."

"That's a wide gap between your age and your sister's age," Shayne made note of. "Do you have other siblings?"

"I do," Claire began. "Delphina was the oldest; I'm the youngest and I have two older brothers and no other sisters."

"Do your brothers live in Rapid City?" Shayne asked.

"No," Claire replied. "In fact, they no longer live in the States."

"Where do they live?" Shayne asked.

"My brothers and my parents live in Greece; Greece is actually where my parents, my sister Delphina and my brother Felix were born," Claire began as they were approaching the SUV. "My parents came to the United States on work visas. My sister Delphina was six. My brother Felix was four and my mom was seven months pregnant with my brother Nikolos when they moved to Rapid City. And then I came along five years later."

"Since Nikolos was born in the States, wouldn't he legally be a U. S. citizen?" Shayne asked.

"Actually, Nikolos and I both have dual citizenship between the U.S. and Greece," Claire replied while moving towards the driver's side. "And before you ask, 'yes', I can speak Greek."

Shayne amusingly grinned while moving towards the passenger's side.

Once inside the SUV and were putting on their seatbelt, Shayne asked, "How long ago had your parents and brothers moved to Greece?"

"My parents moved back to Greece about twelve years ago; soon after the company that my dad had worked for had gone out of business," Claire began before starting the SUV. As Claire drove away, she continued to say, "Delphina had gotten married six years before that and started a family, so I—at age sixteen—was given the choice to move in with Delphina and her family and I took it. I then joined the army one week after I graduated high school.

"As for my brothers, well my dad's dad had offered to pay for our colleges as long as we went to a university in Greece. Delphina and I passed on his offer, but Felix and Nikolos didn't. They went through premed and medical school in Greece and stayed after graduating, which no doubt in my mind was my grandpa's plan from the beginning."

"I can understand why your grandpa wanted his family to move to Greece… or back to Greece," Shayne replied. "In fact, it bothers me slightly that my two older daughters won't be living with my wife and me—mainly because I can't help them if something would happen."

"Yeah, I can understand it too," Claire replied as Shayne's smartphone rang.

Shayne got out his phone, glanced at the caller and said, "Dad. Great. I definitely need to speak with you."

"About what?" Miguel asked.

Shayne hesitated for only a moment before saying, "Okay, I don't know how to say this delicately, so I'm just going to say this outright. You and Mom made a mistake twenty-nine years ago. You and mom did not bury Carmelita."

"What are you talking about, Shayne?" Miguel quickly questioned. "Of course we did."

"No, Dad, you didn't," Shayne countered. "In fact, I strongly believe that you and Mom had buried Lucy Flores."

"Who's Lucy Flores?" Miguel asked.

"Lucy Flores was a girl who had stayed with Peyton Anderson thirty-one years ago," Shayne began. "Lucy was about the same height as Carmelita, and the day Carmelita left home, she had sold all of her jewelry to Peyton."

"Where in hell are you getting your information from?" Miguel demanded to know.

"From the source," Shayne began. "Dad, Carmelita is alive and well and living in Univille, South Dakota. She recognized me right away when we crossed paths." When Miguel didn't respond, Shayne asked, "Dad? Are you still there?"

"I'm here," Miguel replied. "Shayne, are you sure that the woman you met is Carmelita?"

"Yes, Dad, I'm sure," Shayne replied.

"The woman we buried was with Carmelita's boyfriend, Eddie when they died," Miguel replied.

"I made a mistake, Dad, when I told you that Carmelita was dating Eddie," Shayne replied. "I thought Eddie was dating Carmelita because I saw Eddie kissing Carmelita. What I didn't see… or what I didn't stick around long enough to see, was Carmelita threatening to kick him in his manhood if he would ever kiss her again."

"Oh my god," Miguel uttered out. "Shayne, have you told your mom yet?"

"No," Shayne replied. "Mom's a fainter and I wasn't going to take a chance that she would faint if I told her over the phone."

"Your mom had only fainted twice and only during a death related news," Miguel replied in his wife's defense.

"Regardless, Dad, I didn't want to tell Mom over the phone," Shayne replied.

"Alright, I'll tell your mom," Miguel replied. "And text me your new address and the directions on how to get there. We had planned to visit you this weekend, but most likely our visit will begin tomorrow."

"I'll text you, and I'll see you when you get here; bye," Shayne replied before ending the phone call.

"How often does your mom faint?" Claire asked as Shayne put away his phone.

"Not often," Shayne began. "In fact, my dad had pointed out that my mom had only fainted twice. The first time was when my mom and dad had identified the body that was thought to have been Carmelita's body. The second time was when she had learned of her sister's tragic death. Of course I wasn't really around my mom during those times she fainted, but I learned about it soon afterwards. "

"I never saw Carmelita faint, but Shauna—Carmelita's daughter—faints at the sight of blood," Claire shared. "Last Fourth of July, Ray—Carmelita's husband—sliced open his hand pretty good during their picnic outing and Shauna fainted as soon as she saw blood dripping from Ray's hand."

"How well do you know Carmelita and her family?" Shayne asked.

"Carmelita had worked at the gas station before I moved to Univille and we would talk when I filled up the SUV and get my daily chocolate fix," Claire began. Shayne amusingly grinned. "She never mentioned you or your parents though. Anyway, I have spoken with Ray on a few occasions, but I don't know him as well as I do Carmelita. And I have also spoken with each of Carmelita's kids and their spouses and kids; although, Clayton—Carmelita's twenty-four-year-old son—isn't married, nor does he have kids."

"So what is Carmelita's other son's name?" Shayne asked.

"It's Colin," Claire replied. "And he has a very bright four-year-old daughter who can read quite well for her age.'

"What else can you tell me about them?" Shayne asked.

Claire took a breath before answering Shayne.

At the warehouse, Artie and Ronnie were in the control room, along with Myka, Pete, Claudia, Steve and Trailer.

Artie had just taken his seat at the computer to assess the latest ping while Myka, Pete, Claudia and Steve waited patiently for Artie to announce his assessment. Ronnie was in a chair several feet away while petting Trailer.

"Oh," Artie tiresomely said. "Archie's Bed and Breakfast must have gotten sold again."

"Where's Archie's Bed and Breakfast, and why are we getting a ping from there?" Pete was the one to ask as he, Myka, Claudia and Steve looked confused.

"I know about Archie's Bed and Breakfast. It's a haunted lodge in Troy, Alabama," Ronnie was the one to say as she petted Trailer. When everyone turned and stared curiously at Ronnie, Ronnie shrugged and said, "I have a book on haunted places… or at least I had a book on haunted places before coming here and Archie's Bed and Breakfast is listed in the book."

"Yes, Archie's Bed and Breakfast is in Troy, Alabama and it is believed by many to be haunted," Artie began. "Every five to ten years someone buys the bed and breakfast and attempts to open it, and every time this occurs, all hell breaks loose…"

"Artie, in what way does all hell break loose?" Myka was the one to ask.

Artie took a breath before saying, "Unexplained and uncontrollable anger among the employees and guests frequently occurs. Fights and/or assaults have even occurred over the years because of the uncontrollable anger, and according to the psychics… or the people claiming to be psychics, among the angry people are angry and fighting ghosts. And since there are no such things as ghosts…"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Ronnie uttered. "You don't believe in ghosts, Artie?"

"So far, every haunted place I've been to has been haunted because of an artifact," Artie began. "These artifacts had either caused a person to see and hear people who aren't really there or had influenced a person's perception. Either way these haunted places that I had visited weren't really haunted. So 'no'; I don't believe in ghosts."

"It sounds wrong to me for you to say that when you're in charge of a warehouse filled with supernatural objects," Ronnie commented. "Oh, and I do believe in ghosts."

"Yes, well, I believe that there is an artifact at Archie's Bed and Breakfast that gets awakened every time someone attempts to open the lodge," Artie replied. "And with that said, Pete; Myka, you two are to go to Troy, Alabama, on the first flight out in the morning, and find that artifact. And hopefully you have better luck than my two failed attempts on finding the artifact."

"Perhaps your two attempts had failed because there was no artifact to find," Ronnie suggested. "In fact, perhaps a ghost hunting crew should go there instead."

"That actually is a good suggestion," Myka replied in a tone as if she had a plan.

"You want to send a ghost hunting crew to Archie's Bed and Breakfast?" Artie questioned in an incredulous tone.

"No, I don't mean to do that," Myka replied. "I'm suggesting that Pete and I will go in while pretending to be ghost hunters. In fact, Steve and Claudia should come with us as well and pretend to be our camera crew."

Artie thought for a second before saying, "Okay, fine, but if the Mason Compass finds an artifact and restarts the moving process, I'm reassigning two of you to find that artifact and shut that down."

Myka, Pete, Claudia and Steve agreed.

"If we are going in and pretending to be a ghost hunting crew we will need digital cameras, digital voice recorders, EMF detectors, motion detectors, thermometers…" Claudia was only able to say.

"Which sounds very expensive to get," Artie interrupted.

"We might be able to rent the equipment to reduce the cost," Steve suggested.

"Although, we might have to pretend to be a ghost hunting crew again," Claudia pointed out. "I'm actually surprise we haven't had to masquerade as ghost hunters before now."

"Fine," Artie replied. "Go buy what you need and try to keep the equipment and cost to the bare minimum. In fact, if you can buy the equipment used, do it."

"Knightley's Pawn Shop," Claudia announced. "The last time I was in there, I saw a few digital cameras, a couple of voice recorders and a few motion detectors."

"Claudia and I will check out the pawn shop," Steve replied.

"Get receipts," Artie told Steve and Claudia before they could turn and walk away.

"Yes, Artie," Claudia replied as Steve acknowledged with a wave.

"Myka, to help us get into character as ghost hunters, we should go back to the B & B and watch those shows on ghost hunting," Pete suggested as Claudia and Steve moved towards the exit.

"That's actually not a bad suggestion," Myka replied.

"Ronnie, you can go back to the B & B with Myka and Pete," Artie told her.

"So I'm done for the day?" Ronnie asked curiously.

"Yes, you're done for the day," Artie confirmed. "The only thing I wanted you to do today was familiar yourself with the warehouse and you did that, and tomorrow morning you will officially start your duties."

"Okay, but weren't you going to give me a warehouse manual?" Ronnie questioned as she continued to pet Trailer.

"Artie, I can give Ronnie Leena's volumes; they're still at the B & B," Myka said.

"Yes, an excellent suggestion," Artie replied. "Leena had written notes in her books that Ronnie might find useful. Also, just before Leena's death, Leena was using a journal book to write out additional notes that she couldn't fit in her volumes. So give Ronnie that too."

"Okay," Myka replied before waving for Ronnie to come along. "Let's go, Ronnie."

"See you later, Trailer," Ronnie told him with a final rub on the head before standing.

At the Sheriff's office, Shayne and Claire were at their respective computers while researching the names Alice Cooper, Renee Busch and Carol Gerard. Toby had received a call from Lionel Miller (a Univille resident and a snake farmer) about a lost many-banded krait prior to Shayne and Claire's return and was out handling that call.

"I found something on the three girls," Shayne announced after searching for ten minutes. "And it appears to be from a forty-five-year-old case file that was scanned into the computer about fifteen years ago."

"Okay, what did you find?" Claire quickly asked while standing.

Claire joined Shayne at his computer as Shayne replied, "The three girls are missing sixteen-year-olds from an unsolved missing person's case. All three girls were on the Univille cheerleading squad and they had all gone missing the same day. According to this, Zachariah Webster—AKA Zack—was a talented artist who painted portraits and he was painting a group portrait for the three girls just before they had gone missing. Zack was the last known person to have seen the three girls and so he became the prime suspect in their disappearance. Sheriff Bronwyn, the sheriff at the time, had interrogated Zack twice, but couldn't find sufficient evidence that Zack had anything to do with the girls' disappearances. One week into the investigation of the missing three girls, two other teenage girls, Bethany Black and Bethany's cousin Cynthia Black went missing. Sheriff Bronwyn went to pick up Zack for a third time, but Zack's house was on fire when Sheriff Bronwyn arrived and once the fire was put out, Zack's burned remains were found. Sheriff Bronwyn couldn't find any additional clues on the five missing girls after that and the case turn cold."

After a slight hesitation and looking as if she was attempting to singlehandedly solve a puzzle, Claire replied, "If Zack was the prime suspect in all five disappearance forty-five years ago, I can see why Dustin would remember that above all other memories and look at us with contempt."

"If you're looking to reopen this cold case, I wouldn't recommend it," Shayne began. "The prime suspect died in a fire forty-five years ago, the prime suspect's brother has Alzheimer and Sheriff Bronwyn had no other leads to begin anew."

"I wasn't thinking about reopening this case," Claire claimed.

"Okay, then why do you look as if you're trying to make sense of this?" Shayne asked.

"Zack's profession doesn't make sense to me," Claire replied.

"Why doesn't it make sense?" Shayne quickly asked.

"Univille is currently a very small town and forty-five years ago it was even smaller," Claire began. "I don't care how talented Zack was as an artist; here in Univille, he could not have been painting enough portraits to make painting portraits his sole method for income."

"That's an excellent point," Shayne replied as he turned his attention back to the computer. After a short search, he continued to say, "Actually, he and his brother were…" Shayne's voice got difficult to hear as he finished with, "IRS agents."

"So Zack and Dustin had worked at that huge warehouse that's a few miles out of town," Claire recapped. "Oh, that huge warehouse that's a few miles out of town is where all the IRS agents around here work at."

"I actually knew that," Shayne replied as he thought of what that meant.

"Then you might also know that those same agents have rooms at the bed and breakfast—the same place you are staying," Claire pointed it out.

"Yes, I knew that too," Shayne replied while giving Claire his full attention.

"By you and those agents residing in the same place makes a great opportunity to look into this cold case a little better," Claire pointed out.

"I don't think we have anything more to add to this case, Claire, so I won't go snooping about," Shayne replied. "However, when I see Mrs. Frederic again, I will bring up this cold case and see if she has any information on it."

"Mrs. Frederic?" Claire echoed curiously before describing her.

"Yeah, that's Mrs. Frederic," Shayne confirmed.

"I've met her and I have seen her around on several occasions," Claire began. "Exactly who is she and what does she do?"

"She's the IRS agents' boss, and she's the one who actually recommended me for the sheriff's position," Shayne shared. "Anyway, once I see her again, I'll ask her about Zack and Dustin."

"Alright," Claire replied as Toby called for Shayne over his radio.

"Go ahead, Toby, over," Shayne replied.

"The snake that had gotten out of its container is a many-banded krait and poisonous," Toby informed. "We—Mr. Miller, his five workers and I—looked everywhere we can possibly think to look and it's nowhere to be found. Please advise, over."

Shayne thought for a moment before saying, "Toby, get a list of all who were in and out of that facility today, over."

"You think someone stole the snake?" Toby asked. "Over."

"That's one possibility," Shayne replied. "Another possibility is that someone has an unwelcome stowaway. Anyway, hurry up on that list. The faster we can find that snake; the faster we can prevent someone from getting poisoned, over."

"Mr. Miller assures me that the Univille's clinic and the emergency responders do have the proper anti-venom for each of his snakes Over," Toby told Shayne.

"Good," Shayne replied. "Anyway, once you get that list, send it to my phone. Also send copies of Mr. Miller's operation license and insurance information to my phone as well. Over and out."

"Acknowledge," Toby said in an uncertain tone. "Out."

"Once we get that list, you and I will split up and check out the names on the list," Shayne told Claire.

Claire only responded with a nod.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Pete drove the SUV from the warehouse to the lodge. Myka was in the front passenger seat and Ronnie was in the back seat.

As Pete was approaching the lodge, Ronnie spotted ghostly images several feet away of a Univille Market delivery van and the seventeen-year-old delivery man who was removing supplies from the van and placing them on a two-wheel dolly.

"Pete, stop here," Ronnie quickly uttered in an urgent tone.

"What is it?" Pete quickly asked as he came to a quick stop.

"I'm having a vision of a delivery of some kind," Ronnie replied as she—without taking her eyes off of the delivery man—went to get out as quickly as she could.

"Ronnie, the B & B get deliveries all of the time," Myka informed as she and Pete moved to get out as well.

"I wouldn't get a vision of a normal delivery," Ronnie replied as she moved away from the SUV and towards the ghostly images. The ghostly delivery man was moving away from the van with the full dolly. "So something isn't quite right about this delivery."

"Myka, I'm actually getting a bad vibe as well," Pete informed.

Ronnie turned away from her vision and towards Pete, but before Ronnie could look at Pete, she caught a glimpse of something small coming out of the van within her peripheral vision. Ronnie quickly turned towards what she had seen with the corner of her eye, but all she could see was a ghostly trail moving across the grass.

"A small animal jumped out of the van and went this way," Ronnie informed with a hand gesture.

As Ronnie followed the ghostly trail, Myka asked, "What jumped out of the van?"

"I failed to get a good look at it," Ronnie Admitted. Myka and Pete followed Ronnie by a step. "I went to look at Pete's aura—to see how that looked while he got a vibe—and I almost missed the animal jumping out. But whatever it was it went this way."

Ronnie led Pete and Myka to a flowerbed filled with flowers.

Just as Ronnie spotted the snake next to her left foot within the thick floral growth, the snake sprang out to strike. Ronnie saw it flying towards her, but couldn't move her foot back quickly enough before the snake sunk his fangs into her left leg just above her ankle boot.

Pete quickly knocked the snake away from Ronnie, and as Ronnie moaned out in pain, Pete pulled her back away from the snake even further. Myka jump back as well to give the snake a wide berth.

Once Pete had Ronnie at a safe distance, Pete drew his gun.

"Don't shoot, Pete," Myka quickly uttered. "We need that snake alive. The doctor will need to examine its venom in order to treat the poison that Ronnie was injected with."

"There's only one poisonous snake from this region and that snake's not it," Pete replied as he aimed his gun.

"Pete, that snake is a many-banded krait from Southeast Asia," Myka informed. "I don't know why it's here in South Dakota, but I do know that it is poisonous and that it had just bit Ronnie. So I'll rush Ronnie to the clinic and you do what you can to capture that snake, and again, we need the snake alive."

"Alright-alright," Pete said before holstering his gun.

"Is the poison supposed to kill immediately," Ronnie asked as if she was struggling to speak. "I feel as if my throat is closing up."

"Oh god, you must be having an allergic reaction to the venom," Myka said while pulling out her smartphone. "Get back in the SUV. Hurry."

As Myka and Ronnie were briskly moving towards the SUV, Myka dialed the phone to the lodge.

Inside, Valerie was boiling stew when the phone rang. The phone had caller ID and Valerie glanced at who was calling before picking up and saying, "I'm glad you call, Myka…"

"Valerie, immediately stop whatever it is you're doing and quickly come outside to the SUV," Myka urgently told her.

"What's going on, Myka," Valerie demanded to know.

"Ronnie was bitten by a many-banded krait snake outside the B & B and many-banded krait snake is very poisonous," Myka replied. "So we need to get her to the clinic."

"Oh god, I'll be right out," Valerie said before hanging up and turning off the burner on the stove.

Valerie then rushed out without grabbing her purse and stopped a few steps outside the door when she saw Pete near the flowerbed while acting confused on what to do.

Myka and Ronnie were in the SUV. Ronnie was in the back seat behind Myka, and her labored breathing was growing worse and her face appeared puffy.

When Myka saw that Valerie had stopped and was looking towards Pete, she honked the horn.

Myka quickly opened her door and hollered, "Valerie, let's go. Ronnie needs to get to the clinic as soon as possible."

Myka had pulled Pete's attention as well as Valerie's attention.

Valerie turned back towards Pete, and as she moved towards the SUV, she said, "Pete, one of Shayne's childhood friends used to keep rattlesnakes as pets. I know it's not the same kind of snake that you're looking at, but Shayne should know what to do to catch it. I'll call him once I get to the SUV and tell him what's going on. You should just keep track of where the snake goes until help can come."

"I like that suggestion," Pete told Valerie.

Valerie nodded before facing the SUV and quickening her pace.

Valerie rushed to the front passenger seat and once she was in with her door close, Myka drove away.

"How are you doing, sweetie," Valerie asked Ronnie.

Ronnie's extremities had swelled up and she was having trouble breathing, and without attempting to speak she shook her head as if she was trying to shake off her condition.

"Hang in there, sweetie," Valerie told her before turning her attention towards Myka. "Myka, let me use your phone, so I can call Shayne."

"Of course," Myka said before handing Valerie her phone.

Valerie dialed Shayne and Shayne answered with the traditional, "Hello."

"Shayne, it's Valerie," she told him.

"If this isn't an emergency, honey, can I call you back?" Shayne requested. "A local snake farmer had lost one of his many-banded krait snakes, and the snake is very poisonous and my deputies and I are trying to find it."

"What a coincidence," Valerie began. "Ronnie was actually bitten by a many-banded krait snake outside the bed and breakfast."

"Get Ronnie to the Univille's clinic as quickly as possible," Shayne ordered.

"Myka and I are already in route for the clinic with Ronnie," Valerie informed. "So you need to get to the bed and breakfast and catch that snake for the doctor. Pete is watching it."

"The snake's owner had assured the sheriff's office that the clinic has the anti-venom already," Shayne replied. "So just tell the doctor that Ronnie was bitten by a many-banded krait and he'll know what anti-venom to use."

"Alright," Valerie said in a discouraging tone.

"Ronnie will be alright," Shayne replied in an assuring tone. "I actually looked up the many-banded krait on the Wikipedia and the serious symptoms shouldn't start until after an hour of being bitten, and since you're most likely almost to the clinic now, Ronnie will get the anti-venom long before the first hour has past."

"Shayne, Ronnie is having a strong allergic reaction to the snake venom, so this case is more serious than a normal snake bite," Valerie informed.

"Okay, well, I'm certain that the doctor will know how to handle that situation too," Shayne replied in a less assuring tone.

"God I hope so," Valerie replied.

"Val, I need to hang up with you and contact my two deputies and tell them where they can find the snake," Shayne told her.

"Alright," Valerie replied. "I'll meet you at the clinic."

"Yes, and very soon," Shayne assured Valerie. "Love you, bye."

"I love you, bye," Valerie echoed before ending the call.

After leaving the bed and breakfast, Myka drove as fast as she could without causing an accident, and drove through red light and stop signs where she could.

As they were approaching the clinic, Valerie saw that Ronnie was reacting as if she was being strangled from an invisible choke hold and was turning blue.

"Myka, Ronnie can't breathe," Valerie anxiously informed.

"We're almost there," Myka replied as the building of the clinic came into sight. "Ronnie, just hang in there a little longer."

Ronnie lost consciousness as Myka made a slightly dangerous maneuver to get to the emergency entrance as quickly as she could.

"No-no-no. Wake up, Ronnie. Wake up," Valerie uttered during Myka's maneuver and doing what she could to aid Ronnie.

Myka blew her horn seconds before reaching the entrance and continued to blow the horn once she came to a fast and complete stop at the entrance. She only stopped blowing her horn when a security officer came out to see what the commotion was about.

Myka jumped out of the SUV and before the security officer could inquire about her actions, she uttered, "There's a girl in the back seat who has stop breathing from a severe allergy attack."

The security officer nodded before getting on his radio and demanding a crash-cart team to the front entrance.

Ronnie's spirit was outside her body and watched as the doctors and nurses rushed from the building to the SUV with crash-cart equipment.

Suddenly Ronnie's spirit was pulled to total darkness.

"Oh shit, where am I?" Ronnie uttered while swinging around in every direction. "I can't see."

"That's because you are trying to see with your eyes," a familiar female voice said. "Look with your mind."

"Mom?" Ronnie questioned as she turned towards the voice.

"I'm not your mom, Ronnie," the voice replied.

"Okay," Ronnie replied in a 'if you say so' tone. "You actually sound very much like my mom."

"I sound like a lot of people and a lot of people sound like me," the voice said.

"Yes, I'm sure," Ronnie said while sounding unimpressed. "Anyway, I can't see anything except for total darkness. So is there any way that you could turn on the lights, so I can put a face to the voice?"

"Ronnie, look at me with your mind," the voice instructed.

"People can't see with their… Wait, you want me to psychically look at you," Ronnie uttered as if what was going on was now making sense. "I don't have that ability."

"You do have that ability, Ronnie," the voice said. "Now look at me."

"If I have this ability then I don't know how to use it," Ronnie replied. "Can you tell me how to use it?"

"Listen to my voice, Ronnie, and imagine that you're moving through total darkness and towards my voice," the voice instructed. "As you imagine yourself moving closer, imagine that a dim light appears in front of you and with each passing step, the light intensifies until it lights up the room. Are you imagining it?"

"I'm… okay, yeah. Surprisingly I'm doing it," Ronnie replied. "I see the dim light and I… Wait, I'm beginning to see things." As if Ronnie's eyes had readjusted their irises to the dim light, Ronnie began to see her surroundings clearer. "I'm inside Warehouse 13." Ronnie then turned to face the woman. "Wait. You're Leena. You're my cousin who died."

"I'm not Leena, but Leena is very much a part of me," the woman said.

Ronnie shot the woman a curious look before asking, "You're related to Leena though, right? Perhaps her sister?"

"Ronnie, I'm the warehouse," the woman informed.

"I'm sorry; I think I heard you wrong," Ronnie replied. "Did you say that you were the warehouse?"

"I did," the woman replied.

"A person can't be a structure or an object," Ronnie replied. "So you can't be a warehouse."

"Ronnie, I'm the soul of the warehouse," the woman replied. "I am the invisible force that embodies Warehouse 13. Before that I embodied Warehouse 12, and before that I embodied Warehouse 11, and before that…"

"Okay, okay," Ronnie interrupted. "I get it. You're the soul that embodied Warehouse 1 to Warehouse 13."

"Warehouse 3 to Warehouse 13," the woman corrected. "I was conceived when Warehouse 3 was first created and then born a few years later; although I'm not sure if me being born is the right term. Also Warehouse 2 has its own soul that didn't move when Warehouse 3 was created. I felt that soul briefly a few years ago when someone accidently woke it."

"Okay, for argument sake, let's say that you are in fact Warehouse 13's soul," Ronnie began. "How am I seeing and hearing you?"

"You died, Ronnie; you're now a wandering soul," the woman began, which brought a concern expression across Ronnie's face. "Oh, don't worry though. I can see many possibilities playing out all at once, and the probability of you being revived is very high. In fact, that's why I pulled you here, so I can talk to you before the doctors can revive you."

"You want to talk to me," Ronnie verbally noted. "What about?"

"I want you to tell the others to stop preventing me from moving," the woman replied.

"They're preventing you from moving because they don't want you to move," Ronnie told her.

"Yes, I know, and truthfully I don't like the idea of moving either," the woman began. "Of all the warehouses I have embodied over the centuries, this is my favorite one."

"If this is your favorite warehouse to embody, then why do you want to move?" Ronnie asked.

"I don't want to move," the woman clarified. "But because of the twenty-four hour time-loop and the two reality-shifts, I have acquired too much unwanted energy that can only be purged through moving."

"Time-loop and reality-shifts?" Ronnie uttered curiously. "Are you seriously saying that the people on Earth had gone through a time-loop and reality-shifts?"

"Yes, people had gone through them; they had even caused them, and I was in the center of them all," the woman replied. "And those events had caused a high level of energy build up that needs to be purged."

"What will happen if it doesn't get purged?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"Honestly, I don't know," the woman said. "I can see possibilities to many events, but for whatever reason, I can't see what happens to me if I don't purge this energy build up. Although, I do know that moving will purge that energy; in fact, a successful move will greatly weaken me. I won't even be able to help control the artifacts for twenty years afterwards, so moving is really something I don't look forward to, but it has to be done."

"You don't want to move and the others don't want you to move, so all we need is to find another way to purge some of your energy," Ronnie told the woman.

"There's no other way, Ronnie," the woman replied.

"There has to be another way, because the others won't even believe that I have been talking to you and they definitely won't allow you to move if it can be stopped," Ronnie replied.

"You must convince them that you had spoken with me and it is best if I moved," the woman said.

"I will certainly tell the others of what we have talked about," Ronnie began. "But can you tell me something about the warehouse… about you that isn't common knowledge so they'll believe me?"

The woman considered what to say before saying, "Today, Artie refers to me as the 'America's attic', but when I had embodied Warehouse 7, I was referred to as the 'God's storage chest' by Castor. Castor believed that only a god could be responsible for the magical trinkets."

"Do Artie and the others know about Castor and what Castor called you?" Ronnie asked. "Because if they don't, everything I say about Castor would be considered as a strange dream."

"I don't know if they know, but even if they don't know, they can find the information in Castor's journals, and Castor's journals can be found in Maximus's sarcophagus."

"Is Maximus's sarcophagus in the warehouse?" Ronnie asked while making a slight gesture to encompass her surroundings.

"It is," the woman replied. "It's kept where Warehouse 7 artifacts are kept. There's information on the sarcophagus about a curse too, but the curse is a lie. Castor made up the lie so no other Warehouse 7 agent would open the sarcophagus and find his journals."

"The sarcophagus must be dangerous regardless if it's curse or not," Ronnie began. "Or it wouldn't be here. Right?"

"There's nothing dangerous about the sarcophagus, Ronnie," the woman began. "Castor brought it in and then lied about what it did, and he did this so he could hide things. Leena had actually sense the lie as soon as she saw it. She wanted to open it and prove to Artie that the sarcophagus wasn't an artifact, but Artie refused to risk it and then made Leena swear that she would never touch the sarcophagus."

"I'll pass that information along, but I have a feeling that it will go over like a lead balloon," Ronnie replied.

"A lead balloon?" the woman echoed curiously, confused by the statement.

"It's just an expression… It's not important," Ronnie replied. "Anyway, why do you look like Leena?"

"Prior to Leena's death, I was nothing more than a misty cloud without form," the woman began. "Leena—or any other psychic as far as that matters—couldn't see me until after she had died, but while she was alive, she could feel my presence. She had even tried talking to me off and on throughout the years, but honestly what the living says is random sounds to me, so I didn't even know that she was attempting to speak with me until after she told me within the spiritual world. Anyway, even wandering about as a misty cloud, Leena immediately knew who I was though. As a wandering soul, she attempted to speak with me again, but at that time I could only express myself through empathic psychic feelings, such as happiness, sadness or angriness.

"Leena recognized my form of communication right away. She fully understood me when I could only pick up bits and pieces of what she was saying. To break through our communication barrier, Leena opened up her mind and invited me into her memories. It took several months for Leena to teach me everything that she wanted me to know; although we were interrupted a few times when Leena left me to help her friends. Anyway, by the time Leena was done showing me what she wanted to show me, I had gone from being a misty cloud to looking like her; however, I didn't take her appearance on purpose. It was something that simply happened."

"I'm a bit confused about something," Ronnie replied. "If the living had sounded like random sounds to you before Leena had taught you what she did, then how do you know that Castor had referred to you as the 'God's storage chest'?"

"At the time I didn't know, but I don't forget, so after Leena taught me how to communicate with her, I began to understand the living. Also I began to mentally relive my past years—of course I'm not done yet. In fact, the only years I have mentally relived so far are those times I have felt unsettling emotions from the living, and I have always picked up on unsettling emotions from Castor, so I started mentally reliving those years first."

"Interesting," Ronnie replied. Ronnie went to say something else, but yelped slightly and reacted to severe pain at her chest at the exact moment that a momentary flash of white light escaped her chest.

The woman shot Ronnie a confused look, and then looked beyond Ronnie before saying, "The doctor is sending jolts of electricity through your chest."

"They're trying to…" Ronnie was only able to say before yelping and reacting to another severe pain at her chest. Another flash of light escaped her chest at the moment she yelped, and when the flash of light dissipated, Ronnie's soul was pulled back to her body.

At Univille clinic, Ronnie lay unconscious on a hospital bed with a tracheal tube down her throat.

Dr. Brody Cahill—with defibrillator paddles in his hands and looking slightly discouraged—and the two nurses looked towards the heart monitor after Brody's third and final attempt to restart Ronnie's heart.

"She has a heartbeat," one of nurses said when the heart monitor showed a continuous heartbeat after the initial jump.

"Wonderful," Brody said in a relieved tone. "I was about to declare her dead."

As Brody went to put the defibrillator away, he shot off instructions about which medicines to give Ronnie and to place her in the intensive care unit.

"Now I'll go out and talk with the girl's mom," Brody continued to say before turning towards the exit and walking away.

Brody was thirty-one years old. He stood 5' 10" and muscular, and had just recently moved to Univille from Rapid City.

Valerie—while waiting as patiently and as calmly as she could muster—and Myka were waiting in the waiting area.

Eight other people were in the waiting area as well while either waiting to be seen by a doctor or waiting for a love one who was being seen by a doctor to return.

Between the door that led deeper into the clinic and the waiting area was a receptionist station. A twenty-six-year old woman (a nurse) and a man in his early thirties (a security officer) manned the station.

Valerie had most of her focus fixed on the door that led deeper into the clinic and had unconsciously held her breath the two times that it had opened.

Myka saw Valerie's every small and fearful moment and comforted Valerie every time Valerie would begin to lose hope.

When Brody pressed the button to open the door that led to the waiting area, the opening of the door immediately grabbed Valerie's attention, and like the two times before, Valerie held her breath.

When Valerie saw Brody stepping through the door with an IPad, she stood up and quickly walked towards him. Myka stood as well and followed Valerie.

"Aren't you the doctor who was treating my daughter?" Valerie quickly rattled off. "My daughter was bitten by a snake and had an allergic reaction to the venom."

"Yes, I'm Dr. Cahill," he replied before glancing at the IPad. "And you are Mrs. Mendes?"

"Yes, Valerie Mendes," she began. "My daughter's name is Veronica. She's okay, isn't she?"

"Veronica is stable, but in critical condition at the moment, Mrs. Mendes," Brody informed. "She's being moved to the ICU as we speak."

"She will be okay though, right?" Valerie quickly asked.

"It's too soon to say, but we should know more in a few hours," Brody replied.

"Okay, well, can I go to her and sit with her?" Valerie quickly asked.

"Once Veronica is in her room and resting comfortably, I will allow you back there," Brody replied. "Until then, try to keep positive thoughts."

"I'm trying," Valerie sincerely replied.

"I'll check back in a few minutes," Brody told Valerie.

"Okay," Valerie replied.

Brody nodded slightly with a polite grin before turning. As Brody was walking away, Valerie and Myka went to retake their seats.

"Ronnie is in stable condition," Myka said in a cheerful tone after taking her seat. "That's a good sign."

"It is," Valerie replied in an unconvincing tone.

Before Myka or Valerie could say anything else, their attentions were drawn to the entrance to the clinic when the automatic doors opened and Shayne stepped through them.

Valerie jumped up and rushed into Shayne's arms. Without saying a word, Shayne lovingly held her.

Myka casually stood up and casually stepped over to them.

After a few seconds of being held, Valerie pulled back and told Shayne everything she knew of Ronnie's condition.

Minutes later, at the bed and breakfast, Claire rolled up first in her sheriff's vehicle.

Pete—while keeping track of the snake—was a few feet from the flowerbed and looked back at Claire as she was exiting the SUV.

Once Claire was out of the SUV and was walking towards Pete, Pete said, "No offence Deputy Spiros, but you don't look like a snake expert."

"No offence taken, Agent Lattimer, and I'm not a snake expert," Claire replied as she stepped up next to Pete. "Deputy Sykes and Mr. Lionel Miller should be here any time and Mr. Miller is the snake expert… and the owner to the snake as far as that matters."

"I thought snakes like this were illegal to own," Pete commented while gesturing towards the snake.

"They're illegal to own by everyday citizens as pets, but Mr. Miller is the owner to the snake farm," Claire informed.

"Snake farm?" Pete echoed curiously. "There's a snake farm near here?"

Claire shot Pete a get serious look before confirming the snake farm's existence and telling him where the snake farm was located.

"That's what that place is?" Pete questioned. Claire nodded. "I always thought that they were a medical research facility."

"They do extract the venom there to be medically used, but I don't think that they do any medical research," Claire replied. "And since you work for the IRS shouldn't you know about the snake farm?"

"The only time we get involved is when someone or some business is five years or more behind on their taxes," Pete replied. "Which is good for Linus Miller that we don't know what he does. It means that he has been paying his taxes."

"Yes, well, when he gets here his name is Lionel Miller and not Linus Miller," Claire corrected.

"Yes, right. You did say that his name was Lionel," Pete began in a tone as if he was trying to solve a puzzle. "So why was I thinking that you had called him Linus?"

Claire shrugged before saying, "You're a Peanuts fan."

Pete shrugged before saying, "Well, I do like the part where Lucy pulls the football away so Charlie Brown can't kick it and falls on his back."

"Yes, I actually believe that about you, Agent Lattimer," Claire replied.

"With Shayne being the new sheriff and living here, I have a feeling that we are going to be seeing a lot more of each other, so you might as well call me Pete," he replied.

"Okay, Pete, I'm Claire," she replied.

Before anything could be said, their attentions were pulled to Toby's sheriff SUV and Lionel's service truck as they pulled up behind Claire's sheriff SUV.

Pete split his focus on watching the snake and watching Lionel as Lionel grabbed an aquarium and a snake tong.

As Lionel and Toby approached Pete and Claire, Pete pointed out the snake to Lionel and then watched as it took less than a minute for Lionel to catch the snake.

Once the snake was securely in the aquarium, Lionel said, "Deputy Sykes said that the snake had bit the sheriff's daughter."

"It did," Pete replied. "She's being treated at the clinic."

"I'll go and see the sheriff and tell him that I'll pay his daughter's medical bills," Lionel said.

"A nice gesture, but you might want to wait about twelve to twenty-four hours before pitching it," Pete informed.

"Why's that?" Lionel asked.

"Ronnie—the sheriff's daughter—had a severe allergic reaction to the venom, and at this point, no one really knows if she's going to recover or not," Pete replied. "So right now, any nice gesture on your part might get met by a father's wrath."

"Yes, good point," Lionel said. "I'll wait and see what happens before I approach the sheriff. Anyway, I better get this guy back where he belongs."

"I actually live by the clinic, so I'll pop in on the sheriff before going home," Claire said.

"I'll just wait here and hold down the fort," Pete announced.

"Take care," Claire told Pete.

Pete, Claire, Toby and Lionel said their departing pleasantries before they went their separate ways.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

At the clinic, Myka, Valerie and Shayne were gathered around Ronnie as she lay unconscious on a hospital bed and breathing from a tube. Valerie—with tears rolling down both cheeks—held Ronnie's hand and was pleading with her not to go away. Shayne's right hand was on Valerie's shoulder in a comforting manner. Myka stood back slightly with her arms wrapped around her waist and remained mostly quiet as she sadly watched.

Their attention was then drawn to Claire when she lightly knocked on the door frame.

"The nurse at the reception desk told me that I can come up here," Claire said.

"It's fine, Claire," Shayne replied as Valerie wiped the tears from her eyes. "Claire, this is my wife Valerie; Valerie, meet Deputy Claire Spiros."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Mendes," Claire told her.

"You can call me Valerie, and it's nice to meet you, Deputy Spiros," she replied.

"And you can call me Claire," she replied. She then glanced at Ronnie for a brief moment before turning her full focus to Shayne. "Anyway, Shayne, I just came by to tell you that the snake is back where it belongs."

"You could have called to tell me that," Shayne told Claire.

"Okay I lied; I didn't just come by to tell you that the snake is back where it belongs," Claire replied. "I came by to also give you my support during this uncertain crisis, and yes, I know we just recently met, but we're fellow officers and co-workers. So it doesn't matter to me if we just met or not."

"Claire," Shayne uttered slightly when Claire was saying her final four words. When Claire was quiet, Shayne continued to say, "Thanks for coming. I appreciate your sentiments."

Claire nodded before gesturing towards Ronnie and asking, "So what did the doctor say about her condition?"

"He says that it's too soon to even say," Valerie replied.

"Shayne, I can continue as acting sheriff tomorrow, if you need to take tomorrow off," Claire told him.

Shayne thought for a moment before saying, "Yes. You should plan for me to be out tomorrow. I'll call you and let you know if that changes."

"Okay," Claire replied with an understanding nod. "Anyway, I guess I should get going."

"I'll see you later," Shayne told her. "And thanks again for stopping by."

Myka, Valerie and Claire said their departing pleasantries before Claire turned and walked out.

Brody saw Claire leaving the ICU room and shot her a curious look. A sudden awareness came to Brody and before Claire could get more than ten steps from Ronnie's room, Brody caught up with her and said, "Hey, sparky."

Claire glanced at Brody and saw that he was looking at her.

"I'm sorry, are you speaking to me?" Claire asked.

"I am," Brody said as Claire looked upon him as if he was a complete stranger. "You don't recognize me, do you?"

Claire read his name badge before saying, "Dr. Cahill, I don't believe we have met."

Brody looked at Claire's name badge, as if for verification, before saying, "Claire, I'm Brody. Michelle's brother."

"I actually know several girls and women who are named Michelle," Claire pointed out. "So telling me that you're Michelle's brother doesn't help."

"You and my sister used to swim together, skate together, fish together… share a tent together," Brody said.

"Oh my god, you're Micki's brother," Claire replied as she stopped walking and took a better look at Brody's appearance.

"Yes, that's right," Brody said to himself while lightly thumping his forehead with his palm. "You and Tabitha had called her Micki."

"Several of us had," Claire replied. "And I haven't seen you or Micki in… wow, it has to be going on fifteen years since we saw each other last."

"Let's see, I had just gotten my driver's license, so yeah," Brody replied. "It had been about fifteen years since we had last seen each other."

"I was thirteen the last time we had seen each other, so I'm surprised you had even recognized me after all these years," Claire replied.

"I almost didn't," Brody admitted.

"Brody, I called your house immediately after I heard that Micki was in some kind of accident, but no one would tell me what kind of accident or anything," Claire pointed out. "And then Micki had cut me out of her life completely without a word or an explanation."

"Don't take it personally," Brody quickly told Claire. "Micki wouldn't have anything to do with anyone after her accident."

"Micki and I were best friends," Claire replied as if it meant a lot. "So, yes, I did take it personally. For years I wondered if she had blamed me for whatever had happened to her. Which was what by the way? What happened to Micki?"

"Okay, first off, you definitely weren't to blame," Brody began. "In fact, my parents blame themselves for not taking your warning seriously."

"What did I warn them about?" Claire quickly asked.

"The last time you had slept over at our house, you had warned my parents about Micki's sleepwalking," Brody replied.

"Okay, yeah, I do remember saying something to your parents about how Micki had sleepwalked outside, and how she could get hit by a car if precautions weren't taken," Claire replied.

"Yes, well, she didn't get hit by a car, but she did fall off of the roof of the house," Brody informed.

"Micki sleepwalked onto the roof and fell off it?" Claire quickly asked, as if only for verification.

"She did," Brody replied. "She had broken her back in three places and has been paralyzed from the waist down for the past fifteen years."

"Oh my God," Claire replied. "I wished I had known that. I would have visited her."

"Michelle didn't want any visits from anyone," Brody replied. "But that was fifteen years ago and Michelle is now doing well and have a better outlook on life."

"That's good," Claire replied. "Is she still in Rapid City?"

"She lives in Featherhead," Brody replied.

"Featherhead is not all that far away," Claire pointed out. "Would she accept a visit from me if I go to her?"

"I think she would," Brody replied. "I know she had mentioned you a few times throughout the years; wondering what you are like now and what you are up to. So now, when I talk to her again, I can tell her that you had gone into law enforcement and is looking absolutely stunning."

Claire delightfully smiled while saying, "I doubt that I look all that stunning in my deputy uniform…"

"I have no doubts on how absolutely stunning you look," Brody quickly said.

Claire held her smile while saying, "Thanks for believing that I look stunning, and you look absolutely stunning as well, by the way. In fact, I don't remember you looking like a McHotty."

"You think I'm a McHotty?" Brody quickly asked.

"Very much so," Claire agreed verbally and through her facial expression. "The woman who's dating you, or is married to you, is a lucky girl… assuming that you're straight, that is."

"Yes, I'm straight," Brody replied in a slightly amused tone. "And single. What about you? Are you single, or do you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a significant other?"

"Currently, I'm single as well," Claire replied in a tone as if there was more to say.

"You're recently single though, aren't you?" Brody guessed.

Claire thought of her answer before saying, "He ended things with me four months ago."

"Unless you went from the sweet, caring and considerate person I remember you being to not being sweet, caring and considerate within the past fifteen years, your ex-boyfriend is a fool," Brody replied.

"Actually, who I turned into four months ago was why he ended things with me," Claire replied.

"And who did you turn into four months ago?" Brody quickly asked.

"An acting mom and an acting sheriff within days apart of each other," Claire replied.

"Yes, I did hear that the town had been missing a sheriff for a few months prior to today," Brody began. "But what do you mean that you had turned into an acting mom?"

"My sister Delphina and her husband died in an automobile accident just before I became acting sheriff, and my niece and nephew came here to live with me," Claire informed.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Brody replied sympathetically.

"Thanks," Claire replied.

"I'm a bit surprised that your niece and nephew didn't go live with your parents though… unless they had passed away as well," Brody replied. "Oh God, did your parents pass away as well?"

"No-no," Claire quickly replied. "My parents are very much alive and well and living in Greece."

"They live in the country Greece?" Brody curiously questioned. Claire simply nodded for a response. "Did they retire there?"

"Brody, both of my parents were born and raised in Greece," Claire informed. "They were only in the United States on work visas and twelve years ago, when their visas expired, they moved back to Greece."

"I didn't know that," Brody replied. "But you're a U. S. citizen, aren't you?"

"I have a dual citizenship between the U.S. and Greece and so does my brother Nikolos; although Nikolos prefers to live in Greece," Claire shared.

"Don't you have another brother?" Brody asked.

"I do; his name is Felix and he also lives in Greece," Claire replied.

"Does he have a dual citizenship as well?" Brody asked.

"No, he was actually born in Greece," Claire replied. "In fact, Nikolos and I are the only two among my two brothers and my sister and I who were born in the United States, and Delphina had gained her U. S. citizenship after she got married."

"Did Michelle know that your parents were from Greece?" Brody asked.

"She did. I had even taught her a few Greek words and phrases," Claire replied.

"Okay, yeah, I did know that Michelle was able to say a few things in Greek, but I didn't realize that you were the one who had taught her," Brody replied. "Anyway, besides your niece and nephew, are all your relatives live in Greece?"

"I have an aunt and uncle and cousins in Italy, and I haven't met them, but supposedly I have second cousins in Chicago," Claire shared.

"But most of your relatives are in Greece?" Brody asked as if only for verification. Claire simply nodded with a polite grin. "Do you ever get the urge to pack up and move to Greece?"

"I do not," Claire replied. "I was raised to be independent and I don't have the urge to follow my family to Greece. Don't get me wrong. I do miss my family and I have the long distant phone bills to prove it."

Brody slightly chuckled before seeing a nurse twenty steps past Claire and walking his way with documents in her hand.

Claire turned to look at who Brody was looking at as Brody said, "I believe the results to one of my patients are in. So could we finish this discussion later? Perhaps over lunch or dinner?"

Claire turned back towards Brody with a slight amused expression on her face before asking, "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"I am," Brody replied. "May I buy you lunch or dinner?"

Claire considered Brody's date proposal for a brief moment, before pulling out her small notepad and pen from her breast pocket and saying, "You may." As Claire began to write, she continued to say, "Let me give you my cellphone number."

"Okay," Brody replied.

Claire wrote down her number, ripped out the page from her small notepad and handed it to Brody.

"Call me," Claire replied with a pleasant expression on her face.

"I will," Brody replied in an assuring tone. "I'll see you later."

"I'll see you later," Claire echoed before continuing towards the exit.

Claire and the nurse exchanged nods when they passed each other and before Claire got three steps past the nurse, she glanced back at Brody and saw that Brody was watching her.

Claire and Brody exchanged waves before Claire faced forward and continued towards the exit without looking back again.

Once the nurse handed Brody the results to one of his patients, he read them and then went to share the results with his patient.

Several minutes later, as Valerie, Shayne and Myka lightly talked in Ronnie's hospital room, Artie and Mrs. Frederic walked in.

"Pete called and filled me in," Artie told them when all eyes turned towards him and Mrs. Frederic. "How's she doing?"

"She is stable, and the swelling in her face and hands seems to be receding," Valerie replied as Shayne casually walked towards Mrs. Frederic.

"That's a positive sign," Artie replied.

"It is, but I would love it if she would wake up," Valerie replied.

"This town might be small, but I assure you that the medical staff here is quite capable," Mrs. Frederic replied. "Your daughter is in excellent hands."

"I believe you," Valerie replied with a weak grin.

"Mrs. Frederic, can we talk out in the hall for a moment?" Shayne requested.

Mrs. Frederic stared skeptically at Shayne long enough for Shayne to see it before gesturing and saying, "After you."

Shayne nodded before leading the way into the hall.

Once in the hall and out of earshot from the others, Mrs. Frederic said, "Shayne, if you are going to ask about an artifact that would assure Ronnie's recovery, I'm afraid that I will be disappointing you."

"It's not that, and truthfully, Ronnie wouldn't want that anyway," Shayne replied.

"So what is it that you want to talk about, Shayne?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

"Earlier today, Deputy Spiros and I responded to a call about a confused Alzheimer patient. The patient's name is Dustin Webster and today was Deputy Spiros's fourth time being called to deal with Dustin. Dustin was agitated to our mere presence. He was calling his grandson by his deceased brother's name, and telling Deputy Spiros and me that he and his brother Zachariah didn't know where Alice Cooper, Renee Busch and Carol Gerard were at. This was Deputy Spiros's second time hearing those three names from him and she decided that it was time to look up those names, and so she and I did.

"To make a long story short, Mrs. Frederic, I know that forty-five years ago Dustin and Zachariah Webster were warehouse agents, and before Zachariah was killed in a house fire, he became Sheriff Bronwyn's only suspect to five missing cheerleaders."

Mrs. Frederic pursed her lips for a moment before asking, "And what does Deputy Spiros know?"

"All she knows is what is in Sheriff Bronwyn's report," Shayne replied. "And she believes that Dustin and Zachariah were IRS agents and everyone at the bed and breakfast is currently an IRS agent. The detective in her wants to do a little digging at the bed and breakfast though, to see if she could dig up anything about those missing cheerleaders. I told her that I don't believe that there's anything else that we can add to the case, but to keep her from investigating that cold case herself, I told her that I will look into it."

"Will she accept your word if you go back to her and tell her that there's nothing to find?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

"Since Sheriff Bronwyn's only suspect had died during his initial investigation and the suspect's brother is currently mentally incapacitated, I'm very certain that I can convince her that this case is too old to obtain new evidence," Shayne replied.

"Good," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Mrs. Frederic, those five girls went missing because of an artifact, didn't they?" Shayne directly asked. When Mrs. Frederic stared expressionlessly at Shayne, he continued to say, "Yes, right, I don't have the clearance for you to verify my strong suspicions. Rest assured that I do know the importance about not sharing what I know about artifacts or my suspicions about what had happened to those cheerleaders with anyone other than you."

"Yes, I believe you do know the importance of it, Sheriff Mendes," Mrs. Frederic began. "So I will answer your question. Yes, an artifact was involved."

"Can you tell me if those five girls are actually missing or are they dead?" Shayne asked.

"They're dead, Sheriff Mendes; the artifact had killed them," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"The artifact must have done a number on their bodies for the warehouse agents to hide the bodies from their love ones," Shayne assumed.

"The artifact that had killed those girls doesn't leave bodies behind to be found," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"No bodies?" Shayne questioned in a curious tone. "But the artifact has to leave some evidence behind; otherwise your agents wouldn't have even known about it."

"That is true," Mrs. Frederic replied before taking a brief moment to consider on how much information to share. "Sheriff Mendes, the artifact was an artist paintbrush."

Shayne nodded in a thoughtful manner, as if a puzzle piece had clicked in place just before he asked, "What did the paintbrush do?"

"To understand what the paintbrush does, you first need to know its history," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Okay," Shayne replied. "What is its history?"

"The paintbrush had originally belonged to an eighteenth century artist named Casper Woods," Mrs. Frederic began. "Casper had the talent of making his portraits appear very realistic looking. In fact, Casper's wife wrote in her journal that when Casper painted a person's portrait, not only did he capture the person's realistic likeness and put it down on the canvas, but he also captured the person's soul. Most of his subjects had left in a daze once the portraits were finished. The people's daze would of course fade within twenty-four hours, but whatever talent he had that had captured a person's soul, had also imbued his paintbrush. The paintbrush was harmless in Casper's hands… well, mostly harmless anyway, but in another artist's hands, on the completion of the painting, the subject of the portrait would get turned into a fine mist, and that mist would get absorbed by the painting."

"So those five cheerleaders were supernaturally turned into paintings?" Shayne questioned as if only for verification.

"Essentially," Mrs. Frederic replied.

Shayne nodded in a thoughtful manner before saying, "I'm certain that Sheriff Bronwyn was right and Zachariah was the one responsible for those cheerleaders' deaths, but he was also a warehouse agent. So why would a warehouse agent do that to people?"

"Casper and all of his portraits were burned by witch hunters soon after Casper's eightieth birthday, and the witch hunters did this because Casper had stopped aging at the age of thirty-five," Mrs. Frederic replied. "Now no one knows if Casper was knowingly taking a year or two of his subjects' youth, but he was. Whoever uses Casper's paintbrush now will not only turn people into paintings, but will also take their remaining years that they would have had left if they would have died from old age."

"So Zachariah used Casper's paintbrush and killed innocent people only to remain young," Shayne guessed.

"Shayne, I'm much older than I look, and I knew Zachariah," Mrs. Frederic began. "He was a good agent, and I understand that he did what he did because he had inadvertently come into direct contact with another artifact that sped up a person's aging. Also I don't believe that he knew that the painting would absorb whoever he paints. I believe he thought that he would only take a year or two from the person, so his own aging process would return to normal."

"Okay, his plan to take only a year or two from Alice Cooper, Renee Busch and Carol Gerard might be true, but after knowing what he had done to them, he still repeated what he did with Bethany Black and Cynthia Black," Shayne pointed out.

"The stages to the aging artifact follow a similar course to Alzheimer disease," Mrs. Frederic began. "The first stage is forgetfulness. The second stage is the inability to establish new memories. The third stage is complete memory loss. The fourth stage is looking several years older than what he or she should look and the final stage is death. These five stages will come within days apart of each other. So I'm very certain that Zachariah had completely forgotten to what he had done to Alice Cooper, Renee Busch and Carol Gerard and that was why he had repeated what he had done with Bethany Black and Cynthia Black."

"Okay," Shayne replied in an accepting tone. "Since Zachariah was killed in a house fire, what he did and why he did it is mute anyway."

"Since you know most of Zachariah's incident, I might as well tell you all of it," Mrs. Frederic replied. "Besides, I can use your help."

Shayne gave Mrs. Frederic a curious look before commenting, "I get the feeling that you are going to tell me that Zachariah didn't die in the house fire."

"Your feeling is correct," Mrs. Frederic began. "Agent McCormick and I realized that Casper's paintbrush was missing from the warehouse the day that Bethany Black and Cynthia Black had gone missing. I was hoping that I was wrong, but I was certain that Zachariah had taken it. As Agent McCormick and I were entering Zachariah's home, the two agents that were looking for the aging artifact had found it. Unfortunately for Bethany and Cynthia we were all too late to save them. They were being absorbed by the painting when Agent McCormick and I stepped into the room. Agent McCormick pulled out his Tesla to subdue Zachariah, but before Agent McCormick could even aim his Tesla, Zachariah transformed from a forty-six year old man to a six year old boy before our eyes."

"Since this incident took place forty-five years ago, am I right to assume that Zachariah is now fifty-one years old?" Shayne questioned.

"You didn't allow me to finish, Shayne," Mrs. Frederic informed.

"I'm sorry, please continue," Shayne replied with a hand gesture.

"Zachariah had no memory of who he was or even on how to communicate with us, and once Agent McCormick and I had gotten him to the warehouse he had regressed in age by another three years," Mrs. Frederic continued. "In fact, by midnight of that night, he had regressed to the point that he looked like a newborn. Before Zachariah could regress further, the regents stepped in and did something to halt his age regression. Zachariah then remained an infant for slightly more than five years before he began to age normally again."

"William Webster II—AKA Willie—is in fact Zachariah, isn't he?" Shayne asked.

"Yes, he is," Mrs. Frederic began. "You also should be aware that we had altered Dustin's memories. Dustin never had a son named William, but he believes otherwise… or at least he did before he began showing signs that he had Alzheimer." Shayne nodded to what was said. "Anyway, Willie actually lives about three miles from the sheriff's station and I would like for you to check up on him from time to time."

"May I ask as to why I am to check on him from time to time?" Shayne asked.

"Willie's memories were never altered by us, and we fear… well, actually I fear that his memories of being Zachariah could return," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"And you want me to inform you if and when it does," Shayne assumed aloud.

"Yes," Mrs. Frederic replied. "Would you have a problem with that?"

"Not at all," Shayne replied. "If Willie begins to remember his past life, he might react badly for losing forty-five years of his life and that could be bad for everyone."

"I couldn't agree with you more, Shayne," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Okay, there's one more thing that I would like to know if I could," Shayne informed.

"And what would that be?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

"Whose body did Sheriff Bronwyn find after the fire to Zachariah's home?" Shayne asked.

"Forty-five years ago, one of the regents was a doctor who had access to cadavers," Mrs. Frederic began. "So once Agent McCormick and I returned to the warehouse with Zachariah, a couple of other agents were staging Zachariah's death."

"In case Dustin's memory rears its head at the wrong time, how much of this did Dustin know?" Shayne asked.

"Dustin wasn't an actual warehouse agent," Mrs. Frederic began as she spotted Claudia and Steve walking towards them from down the hall. Shayne saw that Mrs. Frederic was focused on something behind him and turned to look. "In fact, his job for us was driving trucks. He drove supplies in and out of the warehouse, along with the occasional artifact that needed to be hauled by a truck. So Dustin honestly believed that his brother was killed in the house fire."

"Okay," Shayne replied in an accepting tone.

Shayne and Mrs. Frederic were quiet for the few seconds that it took for Claudia and Steve to step up to them.

"Shayne; Jinksy and I just heard about what happened to Ronnie," Claudia said while stepping up. "I'm so sorry."

"Thanks," Shayne replied with an appreciative nod.

"How is she doing?" Steve asked.

"She's stable, but unconscious," Shayne replied.

"Can we see her?" Claudia asked.

"Of course," Shayne replied before gesturing towards the room. "Let's go in."

Mrs. Frederic made a gesture for Shayne to walk while telling him, "After you."

Shayne nodded with a slight grin before leading the way into Ronnie's room.

At the bed and breakfast, Pete was leaving through the front door as Carmelita and her husband Ray were approaching the door.

"Carmelita… and Carmelita's husband," Pete began as he was shutting the door behind him.

"It's Ray," he replied in a patient tone. "My name is Ray."

"Right, sorry," Pete replied. "I can be lousy with names."

"We had only met once so I get it that you can't remember," Ray told Pete.

"I have it locked in now, so the next time we meet, I'm certain I'll remember… hopefully," Pete replied. "Anyway, what can I do for you two?"

"Actually we are here to see Shayne," Carmelita replied.

"Currently, he isn't here. In fact, I'm the only one here, and I'm heading out as well," Pete replied.

"Would you know when Shayne will be back?" Carmelita asked.

"Most likely, it will be tomorrow before he will return," Pete informed.

"Shayne, why in hell would you invite Ray and me over and not be here when we show up?" Carmelita questioned rhetorically to the open air.

Pete shot Carmelita a curious look before asking, "Do you and Ray know Shayne?"

"Ray has never met Shayne, but I grew up with him," Carmelita replied.

"Oh," Pete said in a slightly surprised tone. "Were you and Shayne neighbors?"

"Pete, Shayne is my younger brother," Carmelita informed.

"If you're his sister, then why wouldn't he have mentioned you to us?" Pete questioned while making a hand gesture that encompass the bed and breakfast.

Carmelita took a breath before saying, "I left my family and my hometown of Carlsbad, New Mexico, and moved to El Paso, Texas, with my boyfriend when I was twenty. My family didn't know where I had moved to. Then five years later my boyfriend was killed by a drug dealer, and I tried to return home, but by that time, my family had moved and the owners to the house at the time didn't know where. So today was the first time I have seen Shayne in thirty-one years. And then Shayne told me that the reason why that they had moved was because twenty-nine years ago, he and my entire family had mistakenly thought that I had been killed in a house fire and that our mom had to get away from Carlsbad."

"Oh, wow," Pete could only think to say. "So today was in fact a surprise reunion."

"A pleasant surprise reunion," Carmelita replied. "And Shayne told me to come by and bring my family so he can introduce us to his wife and daughter."

"Yes, about that," Pete began. "One of the snakes from the snake farm had gotten out and Ronnie—Shayne's daughter—was the unlucky one to find it first."

"My God, was the snake poisonous?" Carmelita quickly asked.

"It was… and still is," Pete replied. "The snake was recaptured alive. Anyway, everyone is at the clinic and that is where I am heading now."

"We'll meet you at the clinic," Carmelita replied while indicating to Ray and herself.

"I'm sure Shayne will appreciate you being there," Pete replied before the three went to their respective vehicles.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

At the clinic, and in the presence of Myka, Artie, Mrs. Frederic, Claudia and Steve, Shayne told Valerie about Carmelita.

"That's a weird coincidence," Claudia told Shayne. "You and Valerie both had blood relatives in Univille and didn't even know it."

"Unless it's not a coincidence," Valerie replied in a conspiracy-suggesting tone.

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Frederic was the one to ask.

"Normally I don't get intuitions or feelings, but… I don't know," Valerie began as if she was confused by something. "Most of today I have gotten the strong feeling that we—Shayne, Ronnie and I—were sought out by the powers of the warehouse." Valerie shrugged slightly before she continued to say. "Maybe I'm being crazy, but I get the feeling that the warehouse had chosen us."

"That's actually not a crazy thought at all, Valerie," Mrs. Frederic replied. "The warehouse could very well have chosen you and your family."

"Because of Leena, I get why you believe that the powers of the warehouse had sought us out, but I remain skeptical to think that the powers of the warehouse had anything to do with me being reunited with my sister," Shayne told Valerie as Myka saw Ronnie's eyes fluttered, as if being aroused from her sleep. "Carmelita has nothing to do with the warehouse."

"And I would prefer to keep it that way," Mrs. Frederic told Shayne.

"Of course," Shayne assured Mrs. Frederic.

"Guys, look," Myka said while gesturing towards Ronnie. "I think Ronnie is waking up."

Everyone quieted down and turned towards Ronnie.

As Ronnie began to wake up, she became subconsciously aware of the tracheal tube down her throat. She gagged slightly as she sluggishly thrashed her head from side to side as if to fight the tracheal tube.

"I'll go grab a doctor," Myka said in a slightly relieved tone.

"Thanks," Shayne replied.

Ronnie—with her eyes closed and as if she had a heavy hand—reached for the tube in her mouth.

Valerie grabbed her hand while saying, "Sweetie, you're in the hospital and the doctor has you breathing through a tube, and it has to stay in until the doctor removes it."

Ronnie sluggishly opened her eyes to see Valerie, Shayne, Artie, Mrs. Frederic, Claudia and Steve.

When Ronnie made a murmur sound, Valerie continued to say, "And don't try to speak."

"In case you can't remember what happened to you, you were bitten by a poisonous snake and you had a violent allergic reaction to the snake venom," Shayne added as he moved slightly closer.

Ronnie thought for a moment before nodding slightly.

"Also, in case you're wondering, you have only been here for slightly more than an hour," Shayne said.

"Hey, Ron—I hope you don't mind me calling you Ron," Claudia began. Ronnie moved her eyes and looked towards Claudia. "Anyway, Ron, I'm fairly certain that if you didn't want to start work tomorrow, Artie would have understood. You didn't have to go out and get bit by a poisonous snake." Ronnie chuckled slightly, which sounded odd. "Also, I'm glad to see that you're awake."

"We all are," the others added in an uneven chorus.

Before anything else was said, Myka and Brody walked into the room.

Brody stepped up to Ronnie's side and said, "It's finally nice to meet you, Ronnie. I'm Dr. Cahill, and I'll be removing that tube."

Brody told Ronnie what he was about to do and what he wanted her to do. When Brody was certain that Ronnie was ready, he began the procedure on removing the tube. Ronnie coughed and gagged slightly when the tube was being pulled out.

Once it was out, Brody continued to say, "You did great."

"My throat…" Ronnie was only able to get out before her pain had prevented her from saying more.

"Yes, your throat will be sore for a while and you might have trouble talking and swallowing, but all that will go away," Brody told her. "I recommend chewing and sucking on ice chips."

"Okay," Ronnie said in a slightly raspy voice while nodding.

"And for now, talk as little as possible," Brody added.

Ronnie slightly pursed her lips and nodded.

"Anyway, I'll have the nurse bring you some ice chips and get your vitals," Brody told her.

Without attempting to speak, Ronnie nodded in agreement.

Brody walked away from the bed, but before he could leave the room, Pete, Carmelita and Ray stepped in.

When Shayne saw Carmelita, he looked towards Ronnie and said, "Sweetie, I want you to meet a couple of people, but before I introduce you to them, I have to tell you something about your Aunt Carmelita."

"What?" Ronnie said and rubbing her throat afterwards.

"Your grandparents had made a horrible mistake twenty-nine years ago," Shayne began. "Your Aunt Carmelita was only believed to have died in a fire, but she didn't. In fact, this woman is your Aunt Carmelita, and she lives here in Univille with her husband Ray."

As Carmelita and Ray stepped up to the bed, Carmelita said, "Nice to meet you, Ronnie." She then quickly turned towards Valerie and continued to say, "And you, Valerie."

"Nice to meet you," Ronnie was only able to say and reacting to her physical pain that her words had caused.

Ray had also greeted Valerie and Ronnie during Ronnie's greetings.

"The doctor had just removed a breathing tube from Ronnie's throat, so she won't be—or shouldn't be, anyway—talking much," Valerie said while looking between Carmelita and Ray. "And it's nice meeting you two as well."

"Had you told grandma and grandpa," Ronnie forced out and immediately reacting to the pain.

"Yes, and I expect that they'll be showing up at the bed and breakfast sometime tomorrow," Shayne replied. "Meanwhile, you need to quit talking."

"I have things to say," Ronnie murmured while glancing towards Artie and Mrs. Frederic.

"And those things can wait," Shayne replied.

Ronnie thought for a moment before shrugging.

"If some of those things you have to say are questions about me and my family, I could simply volunteer to tell you things about us that might answer most of your questions," Carmelita told Ronnie.

Ronnie pleasantly grinned before nodding in agreement.

"I'm certain that your grandparents—my parents—told you about me and about how I left Carlsbad when I was twenty," Carmelita told Ronnie. Ronnie nodded with a polite grin. "Okay, well, when I left Carlsbad, I went to El Paso; not Denver, Colorado…"

Although Carmelita summarized her life story, it took her several minutes to tell it. Everyone in the room quietly listened to what she had to say.

As Carmelita was reaching the end to her story, a thirty-three year old Caucasian woman (Nurse Abby Leighton) entered the room with a cup of ice chips in her hand. Abby stood 5' 10".

"Hi, I'm Nurse Abby Leighton," she said when all eyes turned towards her; except for Ronnie's. Ronnie's eyes were on the ghost (a Caucasian man who died the month before at the age of thirty-five) that came in behind Abby. The ghost stood 6' 2" and wore jogging clothes. "Everyone can call me Abby though. Anyway, I brought you some ice and I need to get your vitals."

"Of course," Shayne told Abby.

When the ghost saw that Ronnie was staring directly at him, he demanded to know, "You're seeing me, aren't you?"

Without realizing that he was in fact a ghost and that she was the only one who could see him, Ronnie shot him a confused look and nodded her head.

The ghost gestured towards Abby and said, "I need you to tell my sister something for me."

Ronnie glanced at Abby and then at everyone else and saw that everyone was acting as if the man wasn't there.

As a worried expression came across her face, she forced out through the pain, "Am I the only one who can see and hear him?"

"See and hear who, sweetie," Valerie asked as Abby stepped closer while carrying the cup of ice.

"The man who came in with Abby," Ronnie said as she gestured.

"You're the only one who can see and hear me," the ghost said.

"Sweetie, Abby came in alone," Valerie informed as the warehouse crew's attention became aroused.

"Oh God," Ronnie let out as noticeable goosebumps came across every inch of her skin.

"Ronnie, did you see someone else enter the room when Abby entered the room," Shayne asked.

"Obviously I'm your first ghost, and I need your help," the ghost quickly said in a praying motion.

When Ronnie didn't answer Shayne, Shayne asked, "Ronnie, did you see someone else enter the room besides Abby?"

"Abby's brother came in behind her," Ronnie informed.

Abby shot Ronnie an annoyed look as Ronnie watched the color flecks in Abby's aura change from green to blood red.

"Excuse me," Abby uttered in an offended tone.

"Ronnie, my name is Craig Leighton," the ghost said.

Ronnie heard what Craig had to say before telling Abby, "Your brother Craig Leighton is here with us."

In an agitated tone, Abby told Ronnie, "You think that you can take advantage of me. You should be ashamed of yourself, young lady."

"I'm telling you the truth," Ronnie replied. "I see a tall man who stands about 6' 0"…"

"I'm 6' 2"," Craig corrected. "Or when I was alive, I was 6' 2"."

"He just corrected me," Ronnie continued after a slight hesitation. "He's 6' 2" and to me, he looks a lot like the actor who played Clark Kent in Smallville."

"You're telling me that you see a ghost that looks like the actor Tom Welling?" Abby asked.

"If Tom Welling is the actor who played Clark Kent in Smallville then yeah," Ronnie replied.

"It is and you're not the only one who thought that I look like Tom Welling," Craig said.

"Okay," Abby replied in a tone as if she'll play along. "If my brother's spirit is really here and you can see and hear him then you shouldn't have any problems telling me the nickname that he would call me."

Ronnie listened to what Craig had to say before saying, "Your brother says that that's a trick question. Because the only time he had called you a name other than Abby or Abigail was the day when you were in a school play. You were ten and he was thirteen and you were dressed as a frog and he called you Kermit while you were dressed like that."

"Oh my god," Abby uttered. "Craig, you really are here."

"Ronnie, do you see anything in the room that would grab your interest if you would see it at a yard sale?" Artie asked.

Ronnie shook her head slightly as Craig told her, "Tell Abby that Lynn has crawled into the bottle and had left Karen to fend for herself. Abby is Lynn's best friend and she needs to go help them."

Abby had shot Artie a confused look while Craig was talking to Ronnie. Once Abby had disregarded what Artie had said, she turned towards Ronnie and asked, "What does Craig want?"

"Lynn has crawled into the bottle and had left Karen to fend for herself," Ronnie replied. "Since you are Lynn's best friend, Craig strongly feels that you should be the one to go help them."

"I like how you had worded what I want her to do," Craig told Ronnie.

Ronnie glanced at Craig and slightly grinned.

Abby took a moment to think about what was said before saying, "Yes; I probably should be the one to check up on them. I'm actually off tomorrow and Wednesday, but I'll need a few hours of sleep before I can make that long drive though."

"Tell her that her overly friendly neighborhood Spiderman has the hots for her and would more than happy to go with her to share the drive," Craig said.

When Ronnie stared at Craig as if he had lost his mind, Abby questioned, "Craig said something else, didn't he?" Ronnie nodded with a forced grin. "What did he say?"

"He said that your overly friendly neighborhood Spiderman has the hots for you and would more than happy to go with you to share the drive," Ronnie said as verbatim as she could. "He isn't actually referring to an actual Spiderman—like Peter Parker—is he?"

"No," Abby said with an amused grin. "I'm very certain that he's referring to Cole Bradford. He has several tarantulas as pets and a nice stack of Spiderman comic books. I also knew that he likes me, but I have a phobia of spiders. So Cole and I will not be anything more than acquaintances."

After listening to what Craig had to say, Ronnie told Abby, "Craig wants you to know that he's not trying to set you up with Cole. He just wants you to ask Cole to be your traveling buddy."

"Yes, well, with Cole, asking him to be my traveling buddy would be the same as leading him on, and I'm not going to lead anyone on; especially a person who is capable of frightening the bejeebies out of me with one well-placed spider," Abby informed. "I will, however, call Lynn before I go to sleep and let her know that I'm going to show up for a visit. That should motivate her to get her act together before I can get there."

Ronnie again listened to what Craig had to say before saying, "Craig thinks that you won't see what Lynn is actually doing if you warn her of your arrival."

"Craig, after I get some sleep, I'll go and visit your wife and daughter and offer my support anyway I can," Abby began. "But I'm not going to go there just to catch Lynn at being a drunk and a bad mom. You have only been dead a month, and Lynn and Karen are still grieving. Lynn just needs some time to get her head back on straight. Also Karen is thirteen and is capable at making her own meals. So the two will survive until I can get there."

"Craig moaned out 'fine.'" Before anything could be said, Ronnie told Craig, "Because you are moaning. Well, you're more than welcome to go find someone else who can see and hear you." When Ronnie saw everyone looking at her with either a confused or a concerned expression on his or her face, she replied, "Craig isn't all that happy with Abby's decision and even less happy with me for conveying his unhappiness."

"Yes, well, Craig is always unhappy when he doesn't get his way," Abby replied. "He would eventually get over it when he was alive and I'm certain that he can get over it now. Anyway, Craig, do you have any other unfinished business that you need my help to finish?"

Ronnie listened to what Craig had to say before saying, "Craig is confused as to how he died. He was jogging in the park one moment and then the next moment, he was at his… and your parents' house and was a ghost."

"Craig, you died from an acute aortic aneurysm," Abby replied.

Ronnie listened to what Craig had to say before saying, "He had heartburn right before his death, but he thought it was because of the pasta and spicy foods that he had been eating."

"Craig, your heartburn could have been just a case of heartburn," Abby said. "Aortic aneurysm can occur without warning symptoms."

Ronnie again listened to what Craig had to say before telling Abby, "He wants you to tell Lynn, Karen and your parents how much he loves them and how much he wishes that this hadn't been his fate."

"I'm sure they know, but I'll remind them anyway," Abby replied.

Ronnie glanced to her left with a confused expression on her face, but before she could explain her actions, Shayne asked, "What is it, sweetie?"

"I think I hear a man hollering out for Craig," Ronnie said. "Oh. Craig just told me that the voice belongs to his grandfather. He's leaving now… well, he left actually. He faded away when I said that he was leaving."

"Okay," Abby said with a polite grin. "Let me get your vitals and I'll leave so you can rest."

Abby grabbed the blood pressure cuff and as she was taking Ronnie's blead pressure, Ray asked, "Ronnie, have you ever seen a ghost before?"

Ronnie shook her head while saying, "Craig was my first ghost."

"It's odd that you couldn't see ghosts before, but you can now," Ray commented.

"Well, I never died before either, but I had died tonight for a few minutes," Ronnie replied.

"Ronnie, what makes you think that you had died for a few minutes," Valerie quickly and curiously asked.

"I don't think I died; I know I died," Ronnie replied. "And when I was dead, I wasn't alone."

"Who was with you?" Valerie quickly asked.

Ronnie glanced at each of the occupants in the room for a moment before saying, "She never told me her name, but she's very familiar with Artie and his crew."

"Leena," Pete guessed. "I bet you met Leena."

"She wasn't Leena," Ronnie replied. "But the soul who spoke with me was greatly influenced by her."

"Did this spirit tell you anything about herself?" Artie questioned.

"I wasn't with her long, so she wasn't able to tell me a whole lot about herself," Ronnie replied. "I do know though that she has been around a very long time. In fact, this soul knew Artie's and Mrs. Frederic's predecessors, and the predecessors before them, and the predecessors before them, and so on. That's how old this soul is."

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, sweetie?" Carmelita asked.

Ronnie glanced at Artie before replying, "Everything was very detailed, so if what I experienced was in fact a dream, it was the most realistic dream I ever had."

"I certainly have had my share of dreams that seemed real," Carmelita shared.

"Assuming that you weren't dreaming, did this old soul say anything else?" Artie asked.

"She did," Ronnie replied before considering her words. After a short pause, she continued to say, "The soul said that because of certain events that had occurred, she is extremely restless…"

"What events had occurred?" Carmelita asked.

Ronnie pursed her lips and shook her head before resting her eyes on Artie and saying, "She talked as if the events were as bad as twenty-four hour time-loops and reality-shifts. But whatever the events were, she said that if she could move on, without being stopped by what is stopping her, she could be more restful."

"So this spirit wants your help to move on," Carmelita assumed aloud.

"Mostly; although, I actually felt that the soul didn't really want to move on," Ronnie shared. "She just wants to be more restful and she doesn't know how to become more restful without moving on."

"I need to interrupt you for a moment, Ronnie," Abby announced. "Your blood pressure and heartrate are normal, and now I need to take your temperature, and here in the clinic, we still use the oral thermometers"

"Okay," Ronnie replied.

Everyone was quiet while Abby took Ronnie's temperature.

After Abby got the results of Ronnie's temperature and quietly looked at it, she announced, "Ronnie, your temperature is at 100.5, but everything else looks good. So we will be keeping you for at least a few hours, so we can get your temperature back down to normal."

"I figure you would be keeping me anyway," Ronnie replied.

"Yes, we would have kept you for a while even if your temperature was normal," Abby informed. "But since you are running a slight fever, your stay with us will most likely be extended until your fever is gone."

"Okay," Ronnie replied. "I had no other plans tonight anyway."

"Okay, well, let me check with Dr. Cahill to see what he wants you to have and then I'll be back with something to help break your fever," Abby told Ronnie.

"Alright," Ronnie replied.

Abby grinned slightly before turning and walking out.

"Pete, Myka, Steve and Claudia," Artie announced to grab their attention. "You four should go back to the B & B and prepare for your new assignment."

"I should get going myself," Mrs. Frederic announced.

"Actually, I should get going as well," Artie added.

"Thanks for coming," Valerie told them.

"You three are now part of our family, so you will always have our support at times like this," Mrs. Frederic replied.

"Without a doubt," Artie, Myka, Pete, Claudia and Steve wholeheartedly agreed.

"Anyway, Ronnie, get well soon," Mrs. Frederic told her

"Yes, get well soon," Pete added quickly.

"Thanks," Ronnie replied with a pleasant grin. "Bye."

"Bye," Mrs. Frederic said followed by the others.

Once Artie, Mrs. Frederic, Myka, Pete, Claudia and Steve left the room, Carmelita told Ronnie, "So, my beautiful niece, if you are okay to talk now, I would like for you to tell me a little about yourself."

Ronnie delightfully grinned before telling Carmelita and Ray about herself. Valerie and Shayne contributed to what was said.

Minutes later at the bed and breakfast, Pete got onto his Amazon Prime member account and purchased digital copies of season one from three different shows on ghost hunting and paranormal investigation.

The largest TV at the bed and breakfast was also in Pete's room, so once Pete logged out of his Amazon account, he, Myka, Claudia and Steve piled in front of the large TV to watch episode one to one of the shows. Claudia brought popcorn.

At 8:50 P.M., at the clinic, (ten minutes before the clinic's visiting hours were to end) Shauna (Carmelita's daughter and Ray's stepdaughter), Carmelita and Ray's two sons (Colin and Clayton), Caleb (Shauna's husband), Karla (Shauna and Caleb's eight-year-old daughter) and Benjamin (Shauna and Caleb's five-year-old son) stepped into Ronnie's room.

Ronnie's voice was much better and before the new arrivals had stepped in, the conversation was on paranormal movies and TV shows; however, the discussion was quickly replaced by introductions.

"Do you live in Univille?" Ronnie asked the new arrivals, soon after the introductions were over.

"No, we live in Featherhead," Colin was the first to say.

"We do visit a lot," Shauna added. "Well, I do anyway."

"I visit when I get the chance," Colin said.

"I visit when I get the chance too," Clayton added.

"Okay, anyway," Shauna began. "Ronnie, I hear that you, Uncle Shayne and Aunt Valerie are from Saint Louis."

"We are," Ronnie replied as she glanced towards her parents.

"Have you ever been in the Arch?" Karla asked.

"I have," Ronnie replied. "Three times, and one of those times was on a school field trip."

"What's the Arch like," Karla asked.

Ronnie described the Arch as best as she could. The conversation had then shifted to other national monuments that they either visited or wanted to visit.

At 9:03 P.M., Abby returned to the room to run everyone out, except for Ronnie's parents who were allowed to stay past visiting hours; however, since Ronnie was expected by everyone to make a full recovery, Shayne and Valerie didn't feel the need to stay beyond the normal visiting hours.

Before anyone attempted to leave, Valerie asked, "How long does Dr. Cahill want to keep Ronnie?"

"As long as Ronnie remains fever free throughout the night, Dr. Cahill said that Ronnie can be discharge as early as 8:00 A.M.," Abby replied. "And, Ronnie, when you are discharge, Dr. Cahill wants you to take it easy all day tomorrow. So doctor's orders—no sports, no bike riding, no running and no exercise of any kind until Wednesday morning."

"My bike is still in Saint Louis and I haven't met anyone yet to play sports with, so taking it easy all day tomorrow should be a snap," Ronnie replied.

"Okay," Abby said.

"I'll be back in the morning, sweetie, to pick you up," Valerie told Ronnie.

"Okay; good night, everyone," Ronnie told them.

"Good night," they each said before turning and leaving the room in a single file.

As Ronnie's family was leaving, Abby checked Ronnie's vitals once again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

The first flight from South Dakota to Alabama was schedule to leave at 6:35 A.M., and for Myka, Pete, Claudia and Steve to make that flight, they left the bed and breakfast two and a half hours before.

At the clinic, Tuesday morning at 6:00 A.M., Ronnie began dreaming about a construction crew replacing the decaying wooden floors in the lobby of Archie's Bed and Breakfast with new wood.

Within the dream, Roy O'Neal (a mentally challenged construction worker) was being picked on and bullied by another worker named Tony Smith. Roy verbally channeled his anger towards the head of his hammer, but when Tony took away the hammer, Roy snapped and attacked Tony with a handsaw. Tony's hand—the hand holding the hammer—was severed off, and soon after Roy retrieved his hammer, he began using it to fight off the other workers who were trying to restrain him. The wooden handle to the hammer quickly broke and the head of the hammer fell in the space that would eventually get covered by floor slats.

Roy was soon subdued after his hammer broke, and within fifteen minutes Roy was taken away by the police. Tony was rushed to the hospital along with his severed hand, and when the other workers resumed their work, the hammer head to the broken hammer was overlooked within the floor and was covered up by floor slats.

Ronnie was quickly startled awake by a man demanding for her to wake up.

Ronnie shot up into a sitting position and her gaze quickly landed on the ghost (Roy's ghost) that was standing next to her bed.

When Roy saw the fear in Ronnie's eyes, he told her, "I can't hurt you, nor do I want to. So please don't be scared."

"Easier said than done," Ronnie replied.

Roy nodded in agreement before saying, "My mental illness only inflicted my body and not my soul, but of course it took me a few days after my death for me to realize that I was no longer inflicted with mental illness or my body's limitations."

"You're a spirit," Ronnie said as if that fact was suddenly clear to her.

"Oh, you thought I was actually standing here in the flesh," Roy said, also as if that fact was suddenly clear to him.

"You're my second ghost and both of you have appeared to me very solidly and not ghostly," Ronnie explained.

"I now understand your confusion," he replied. "Anyway, when I was alive, my name was Roy Alexander O'Neal, and I gave you the dream that you just had; although, for me it wasn't a dream; it was the memory to the worst day of my life. In fact, that day had changed the course of my life and not for the better."

"I can imagine," Ronnie replied.

"I believe you can," Roy replied. "Anyway, I know that you now associate with that group that goes around and collects objects with special supernatural properties."

"They call them… well, we call them artifacts," Ronnie informed.

"Yes, well, the head of my hammer is an artifact," Roy said. "I don't know how I did it, but somehow I cursed the hammer head of my hammer with rage. When someone is as close as forty steps from the hammer head, they become angry and the closer someone is to the hammer head the angrier that person will become. So you need to tell your associates about it, so they can bury it so deep that it won't affect anyone else."

"I'll tell them at the first chance I get," Ronnie assured Roy.

"Thank you," Roy replied. "I wasn't really a bad person when I was alive, and I couldn't rest while knowing that that hammer head was hurting people because of me; in fact, it took me thirty-five years to find someone like you."

"How did you know to come to me?" Ronnie asked.

"Someone is going to open the bed and breakfast again very soon and the last two times the bed and breakfast had opened, the shorter man of your associates showed up," Roy began. "The first time he had, I didn't know what he was doing, but when he showed up the second time, I figured out that he was searching for my hammer head; even though he didn't really know what he was looking for. So I followed him. I tried to communicate with him, but obviously I couldn't. I had even followed him back to that building within the side of the mountain. I tried to follow him inside the building, but something had kept me from entering the building. Anyway, as I said, someone is going to open the bed and breakfast again soon. I was certain that your associate was going to return to the bed and breakfast, so I came here to try to communicate with him again. I attempted to communicate with him soon after he left the building at the mountainside. Of course he wasn't able to hear me, but I kept trying. I followed him here and then I saw you talking to Craig. Anyway, I need you to tell your associate that the hammer head is what is causing the mischief."

"I'll make sure my associates know about the hammer head," Ronnie told Roy.

"Thank you," Roy said. "I can now finally rest."

"You're welcome," Ronnie said just as the door to her room opened.

As Nurse Kandy Johnson—a nurse who Ronnie hadn't met yet—entered the room, Roy walked towards the exit.

"Hi, I'm Kandy," she began while walking towards the bed and glancing around as if she was searching for something. Just as Roy and Kandy were crossing paths, Roy faded away and Ronnie saw that Kandy had gotten the shivers. Also at the exact moment when Kandy had gotten the shivers, Ronnie had seen that Kandy's resting aura had shifted very quickly from green to very dark green (almost black). As quickly as Ronnie saw the change in Kandy's resting aura, Kandy's resting aura shifted back to its original green. "I will be your nurse for the next few hours; although, I hear that Dr. Cahill will be releasing you shortly."

"I heard that too," Ronnie replied as Kandy looked slightly confused about something as she continued to glance around. "Did you lose something, Kandy?"

"My mind," Kandy mumbled.

Kandy didn't mean for Ronnie to hear, but Ronnie did and she asked, "Why do you think that you had lost your mind?"

Kandy gave Ronnie a surprised look before replying, "Before opening the door, I would have sworn that I had heard you and a man talking to one another. But clearly there is no man in here and no place to hide."

"How often do you hear people you can't see?" Ronnie asked.

Kandy slightly laughed as if she heard a joke before jokingly saying, "That is for my psychiatrist and me to discuss; not you and me."

"But you do occasionally hear voices when there is no one to be seen?" Ronnie quickly asked.

"Ms. Mendes, we aren't going to discuss whether I'm hearing voices or not," Kandy replied.

"That's fine, but you should know that the man you heard moments ago was Roy Alexander O'Neal," Ronnie informed.

"Really?" Kandy questioned incredulously. "And where is Roy Alexander O'Neal now?"

"He left when you came in," Ronnie replied.

"I didn't pass anyone as I was coming in," Kandy said.

"Actually you did," Ronnie informed. "Apparently you can hear and feel ghosts, but you can't see them."

"So Roy Alexander O'Neal is a ghost and you had talked to him?" Kandy asked as if for clarification.

"He is and I did," Ronnie replied.

"How often do you talk to Roy?" Kandy asked as Ronnie saw that Kandy's emotional crackles had shifted from a yellowish green color to a pure yellow color.

Ronnie shot Kandy an uncertain look before she answered with, "Just this once. He had been trying to communicate with someone in Univille for a long time, and I know the person who he had been trying to communicate with. So I agreed to talk to the person for him."

"I see," Kandy replied in a tone that a psychiatrist would use when mollifying a patient.

Ronnie chuckled without humor before saying, "Even though you can hear ghosts, you don't believe in them." Before Kandy could say anything, Ronnie continued with, "Why did you go into medicine when you think of yourself as mentally ill?"

"I'm not discussing my health or mental health with you, Ms. Mendes," Kandy quickly replied. "However, I would like to discuss as to how long have you been seeing ghosts."

"I don't know if this is in my chart or not, but I died last night for a few minutes," Ronnie replied. "Before I died last night, I have never seen a ghost as far as I know, but since being revived, I have seen and spoken with two ghosts."

"So you being able to see and speak with ghosts is all new," Kandy replied also in a tone that a psychiatrist would use.

"Yes," Ronnie replied. "Although, I can tell that you don't believe I have really spoken with two ghosts."

"I believe that you believe, if that helps," Kandy replied.

"It doesn't help, nor does it hurt," Ronnie told her. "In fact, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other if you believe me or not."

"Fair enough," Kandy replied. "And, since Roy had left when I stepped in, am I correct to assume that you aren't seeing any ghosts at the moment?"

"You are correct," Ronnie replied. "There are no ghosts here right now; or if there is, they're not showing themselves to me."

"Good," Kandy told Ronnie. "Anyway, I just came in to talk with you and see if you need anything."

"I'm good," Ronnie replied. "I just want to go back to sleep until it's time for me to be discharge."

"Okay," Kandy replied. "Sweet dreams."

"Thanks," Ronnie replied.

Kandy turned and as she was leaving, Ronnie turned over onto her side and closed her eyes.

At 7:05 A.M. Dr. Gavin Bell (Univille's twenty-eight-year-old psychiatrist) knocked on the doorframe to Ronnie's door as he entered without seeing if Ronnie was awake.

Ronnie was in a REM sleep when the knock woke her, and she quickly sat up and looked around.

As Ronnie was trying to get her bearings, Gavin said, "I'm sorry to wake you, Ms. Mendes, but I understand that you will be release soon and I want to talk with you while I can."

"Okay," Ronnie replied as she focused on Gavin and forcing herself to think clearly. "Who are you?"

"I am Dr. Gavin Bell, but you can call me Gavin," he replied. "Would you mind if I call you Veronica?"

Ronnie noticed Gavin's aqua blue resting aura and his darker blue emotional crackles and slightly hesitated to say, "Sure, you can call me Veronica."

"Excellent," Gavin replied.

Before Gavin could continue, Ronnie asked, "Are you the first shift doctor and Dr. Cahill the third shift doctor?"

"I do mainly work the first shift and sometimes part of the second shift, but I'm not here because Dr. Cahill's shift had ended," Gavin began. "I'm here because Kandy had expressed some concerns about you."

"You're Kandy's psychiatrist," Ronnie quickly said.

"I am a psychiatrist," Gavin confirmed. "However, I can't really answer you if I'm Kandy's psychiatrist."

"That's fine, because I wasn't asking if you were Kandy's psychiatrist or not," Ronnie informed.

"Yes, well, I can't really say one way or the other if your assumption is correct either," Gavin informed.

"Okay," Ronnie replied.

"Anyway, Kandy tells me that you believe that you can see, hear and talk to ghosts," Gavin said and then closely watched Ronnie's reaction.

Ronnie's reaction remained indifference as she replied, "I'll be gladly to comment on your statement or inquiry, whichever it is, when my parents and/or a lawyer get here."

"Veronica, I'm not the police, so you don't need a lawyer present." When Veronica chuckled with little humor, Gavin asked, "You don't believe me that you don't need a lawyer."

"I believe you would, as the police would, use everything I say against me, so I'm not going to say anything else without my parents being present or a lawyer being present," Ronnie replied before laying back down and facing away from Gavin.

"Veronica, I understand that you had just turned seventeen and the symptoms of schizophrenia can present themselves as early as sixteen. In fact, there had been documented cases that symptoms of schizophrenia for a few patients had occurred prior to their sixteenth birthday." Gavin was quiet for a moment and when he saw that Ronnie wasn't going to respond to him whatsoever, he sighed and said, "Fine. You win. I will contact your parents and we will try this again with them here."

Gavin watched Ronnie for a brief moment and when he saw that Ronnie again wasn't going to respond to him whatsoever, he turned and walked out.

Ronnie waited until she was certain that Gavin had actually left her room and the area of her room before turning over and glancing at the door. She then took a hard breath before readjusting her bed for a sitting up position and turning on the TV. After a short search for something that she was interested in, she settled for a rerun episode of 'Charmed'.

Thirty-five minutes later, around 7:45 A.M., Valerie (while pushing a wheelchair with a bag of clothes setting on the seat), Shayne (while wearing his sheriff's uniform) and Kandy entered the room.

Ronnie looked their way as Kandy was slightly pleading, "Sheriff Mendes; Mrs. Mendes, will you please stop and think about what is best for your daughter."

"We are definitely thinking about what is best for our daughter," Valerie replied, slightly angrily. "And no disrespect to you or to Dr. Bell, but you two are the two who need professional help; not my daughter."

Kandy glanced towards Ronnie while saying, "Veronica's hallucinations are not going to go away over time by themselves."

"I'm quite certain that this discussion about me hallucinating has something to do with me seeing ghosts, and they're only hallucinations if I hadn't actually seen the two ghosts," Ronnie retorted.

Kandy gestured towards Ronnie while saying, "Your daughter clearly believes that she is seeing ghosts."

Before Ronnie could respond, Shayne replied, "As far as anyone truly knows, Nurse Johnson, my daughter has seen two ghosts within the past twenty-four hours. You can't prove otherwise, and I certainly can't prove otherwise. Also, if you had been a part of the discussion that Valerie and I had with Dr. Bell, you would have heard all about the message that Veronica had conveyed to Nurse Abby Leighton from Craig Leighton—her deceased brother. Veronica said things that she could not have said or even known about unless it did, in fact, come straight from Craig himself. Nurse Leighton believes that the message was from Craig and so do Val and I. So I believe Veronica when she says that she had seen two ghosts."

"Clearly I'm wasting my time while trying to convince you that Veronica needs help," Kandy replied.

"I know you overheard Roy O'Neal's ghost when he spoke with me. I also saw that you had felt him." When Kandy gave Ronnie a confused look over Ronnie's last comment, Ronnie continued to say, "I saw you shiver slightly when you and Roy had crossed paths. So I don't understand why you rather believe that you hear voices that aren't really there than that you can actually hear and feel ghosts."

"I was in the hallway when I heard what I did, and I'll admit that it sounded like a man's voice, but clearly I was mistaken," Kandy quickly replied. "In fact, what I heard could have been you talking like a man."

"It wasn't me you heard," Ronnie quickly said. "I can't even sound like a man."

"Regardless, when I hear things that aren't there, I prefer to get the actual help that I need," Kandy replied before turning and walking out.

"All righty," Valerie replied before fully facing Ronnie. "Anyway, good news. You have been officially discharged." Valerie grabbed the bag of clothes and lifted it up. "And since the clothes that you had on yesterday had gotten ruin, I brought you some more clothes."

"My Webster Grove shirt was ruin?" Ronnie quickly asked as she went to get out of bed.

"Sorry, sweetie, but the staff had cut your clothes off of you once you got here," Valerie replied.

"I like that shirt," Ronnie grumbled.

"Perhaps you can get Chloe to send you another one," Shayne suggested.

"I might be able to," Ronnie said with a slight shrug.

Shayne gestured towards the hall while telling Ronnie, "I'll wait out in the hall so you won't have to step into the bathroom to get dress."

"Okay," Ronnie replied.

Shayne left and when Ronnie went to take off the hospital gown, Valerie asked, "Did Roy O'Neal tell you what he wanted?"

As Ronnie swapped out the hospital gown for her clothes—a purple pullover shirt, blue jeans and her three-inch high-heeled black ankle boots—she told Valerie about Roy O'Neal.

After Ronnie was fully dress and was sitting in the wheelchair, Valerie pushed her into the hallway.

After rejoining Shayne in the hall, Valerie continued to push Ronnie towards the exit, but before they could reach the exit to the hospital, Gavin made another pitch for Ronnie to seek treatment for schizophrenia.

"I don't have schizophrenia," Ronnie proclaimed.

"It's common for a patient of the disease to feel that he or she doesn't have it," Gavin replied.

"Dr. Bell, just because you believe that ghosts are figments of people's minds doesn't make you right and my daughter wrong," Shayne told him.

Before Shayne could continue, Gavin replied, "After you and your wife left my office, Sheriff Mendes, I contacted Barb—Barb is the general counsel for the clinic. Anyway I contacted Barb and told her that I wanted a court order so I can treat your daughter, but unfortunately Barb agrees with you. Apparently superstition in Univille runs deep, and my medical degree in psychiatry means little to nothing in this town. Anyway, Sheriff, I can't stop you from taking your daughter home; however, I do want you to know that I am available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week if Veronica would decide that she needs help."

"I won't," Ronnie quickly said.

"Okay," Gavin replied in a tone as if he was accepting defeat. "Since Univille is a small town, most likely I will see you around. So, until we meet again."

"Bye," Valerie, Shayne and Ronnie told him before Valerie continued to push Ronnie towards the exit. Shayne walked beside Valerie.

Once outside the clinic, Ronnie stood up and walked the remaining distance to Shayne's sheriff SUV.

Minutes later, Shayne dropped Valerie and Ronnie off at the bed and breakfast and then continued to the sheriff's office.

Artie was still at the bed and breakfast, but he was leaving through the front door when Valerie and Ronnie were a few steps from it.

"Welcome home, Ronnie," Artie told her.

"Thanks," Ronnie replied in a slightly urgent tone. "But before you leave, I need to tell you that you and I were both right about Archie's Bed and Breakfast. There is an artifact and there is also a ghost."

"And you know this how?" Artie asked.

"Roy O'Neal's ghost came to me this morning and gave me a dream about how he had unintentionally imbued the head of his hammer with his anger and the head of his hammer is underneath floor slats within the lobby area. So now, every time people get close to that hammer head by forty steps they get angry."

"If Roy O'Neal haunts Archie's Bed and Breakfast, how could he come to you?" Artie asked as if to make Ronnie see reason. "He wouldn't even know about you."

"The second time you went to Archie's Bed and Breakfast while looking for the hammer head, Roy realized what you were there for—even though you didn't know what you were searching for—and after you gave up your search, he was with you—while trying to communicate with you up until you walked past the front door to the warehouse. The warehouse wouldn't let him into the warehouse. Anyway, since Archie's Bed and Breakfast is about to open once again, he came back to try to talk to you again. Last night he followed you from the warehouse to my hospital room and then he saw me talking with Craig."

Artie pursed his lips before asking, "You wouldn't be holding out on me, would you? About possessing another artifact that you don't want to give up?"

"That necklace I was wearing was the only artifact that I had wanted to hang onto," Ronnie replied.

"The necklace that Ms. St. Clair sold you was an artifact?" Valerie asked.

"It was," Artie was the one to answer. "It was also what was protecting Ronnie against those weak to mild mannered artifacts. However, it would not have protected her against powerful artifacts. In fact, that necklace could have either killed Ronnie or have seriously hurt her if she came into contact with a powerful artifact while wearing the necklace."

"How?" Valerie asked.

"The necklace was shocking me each time I touched an artifact, and the stronger the artifact, the stronger the shock," Ronnie was the one to say.

"That transfer of energy between the necklace and the artifacts was the necklace attempting to neutralize the artifacts and it had been using Ronnie as a conductor," Artie added. "Anyway, Ronnie, tell me more about Roy O'Neal. Knowing more about him could help the others to keep their anger down."

Ronnie took a breath before saying, "When Roy was alive, he was mentally challenged and was working for the construction company that was restoring the bed and breakfast. One of the other construction workers—I think his name was Tony—had picked on him and instead of saying anything back to Tony, he channeled his anger towards the head of his hammer. Then Tony took away his hammer and Roy went berserk. Roy attacked Tony with a handsaw and cut off Tony's hand—the hand that was holding the hammer. Roy quickly retrieved his hammer, and then began using it to fight off the other workers who were attempting to restrain him. The wooden handle to the hammer quickly broke and the head of the hammer fell into the space that had gotten covered up by floor slats. Roy was quickly subdued after his hammer broke, and was then taken away by the police when the police got there. Tony was rushed to the hospital along with his severed hand, and when the other workers resumed their work, the hammer head to the broken hammer was overlooked and covered up by the floor slats."

"That's very interesting," Artie replied.

"So you believe me that I had seen Roy's spirit?" Ronnie asked.

"Let's just say that I'm keeping an open mind," Artie replied. "I still have my doubts, but I'm not going to disregard what you said either."

"I can live with that," Ronnie replied with a grin. "And while you are keeping an open mind, Artie, I did meet with the soul to the warehouse. She has acquired too much unwanted energy because of a time-loop and reality-shifts."

"Wait," Valerie demanded. "Artie, did this world in fact experience time-loops and reality-shifts."

"There were only one time-loop and two reality-shifts," Artie admitted. "The second reality-shift was us correcting the first reality-shift."

"The warehouse told me that she was in the middle of it all," Ronnie continued. "And she says that she doesn't want to move, but moving is the only way she knows that will purge that unwanted energy."

"Yes, well, I'm not willing to let go of the warehouse just yet," Artie began. "So we'll find another way for her to purge her unwanted energy."

"I assumed that would be your answer," Ronnie replied. "In fact, I told her that you wouldn't allow her to move if it can be stopped."

Artie nodded before saying, "Ronnie, you keep referring to the soul of the warehouse as a she. Did its soul appear to you as a woman?"

"Because of how strongly Leena's influence was on the warehouse, the warehouse's soul had assumed Leena's likeness," Ronnie began. "In fact, at first, I thought she was Leena… or one of Leena's relatives when I first saw her, but she quickly told me who she was."

"Not long after Leena's death, Pete and then Steve swore that they both had seen Leena's spirit," Artie began. "Leena appeared to them to assist them with urgent crises. Now I'm wondering if it was the warehouse's soul that they saw."

"It might have been Leena's spirit those times," Ronnie replied. "The warehouse had told me that Leena had stuck around and taught her—her being the warehouse—things, like how to understand the living. In fact, the warehouse told me that she thought that our speech was random sound. It wasn't until after Leena had died before she realized that our speech was a form of communication."

"So before, the warehouse couldn't understand us, but now she can," Artie said as if to himself.

"Correct," Ronnie replied.

"Okay, well, thanks for the information, Ronnie," Artie replied. "Anyway, rest and recuperate and tomorrow you can begin."

"Okay," Ronnie replied.

"Oh, and I also left Leena's warehouse manual and her journal book on the coffee table," Artie began. "I would like for you to start reading the manual while you are here."

"Okay," Ronnie again replied.

"Anyway, if anyone needs me, just call me at the warehouse," Artie replied.

"Will do," Valerie replied.

"Okay, I'm off," Artie told them.

"See you later," Ronnie said.

Valerie simply waved with a polite grin.

As Artie continued to his car, Valerie and Ronnie entered the bed and breakfast.


End file.
